Queens County, in New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Queens County lies within New York City metro — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Queens County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Queens County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Queens County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Queens County — the short answer
Queens County, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 70K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 70K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7b is Queens County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Queens County's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Queens County
Across a year, Queens County accumulates about 3,465 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,229 more than the middle New York county — ahead of 57 of New York’s 62 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Queens County
Across Queens County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Greenbelt, Nagunt, and Flatbush are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a cemented material surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.2–6.6, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
24%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Queens County
The USDA soil survey maps 13% of Queens County as well drained — but another 8% drains differently: 4% subaqueous, 2% very poorly drained.
Greenbelt is the most extensive named soil at 34% of mapped acres, then Nagunt (13%) and Flatbush (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Queens County
Each reading below is measured for Queens County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Queens County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Queens County runs about pH 5.2–6.6, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 24% of Queens County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredQueens County runs about 256 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
The kind of country Queens County is in
Queens County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northeastern Coastal Zone (80%) and Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens (20%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Queens County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Queens County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 256-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's New York profile.
Is it too late to plant in Queens County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Queens County
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Queens County, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle6 documented records
- monarch butterfly471 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Queens County
USGS estimates 156 lb of Chlorpyrifos on Queens County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Carbaryl (81 lb) and Cyprodinil (69 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Queens County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Queens County — 6,452 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 14 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Queens County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Queens County
Closest first, across Queens County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOBIL S/S 17-HPN MT SERV STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BP SERVICE STATION #11896Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- LUKOIL #181Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- DBA RITE AID #10606Brownfields · 900 ft
- BOND MOTOR'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BP/AMOCO SERVICE STATION #12650Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NYC BD OF ED - PUBLIC SCHOOL 207QBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CROSS BAY COOP CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HOWARD PARK DRIVE-IN CLEANERSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- SPEEDWAY 7878Brownfields · 1400 ft
- JAMES KOLMBrownfields · 1400 ft
- SPEEDWAY # 7878Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Queens County's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Queens County.
Severity Distribution
across Queens County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Queens County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 4,005 sites across Queens County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Queens County
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Queens County average
Your land is one point inside Queens County
Everything above resolves to Queens County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 70K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at county scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better county average.
Your Lot vs the Queens County Average
Queens County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Queens County
- ●One soil character for all of Queens County
- ●Frost dates read at Queens County's scale: Mar 20 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Queens County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Queens County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Queens County, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Queens County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Queens County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Queens County average
How we know this about Queens County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Queens County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Queens County
When does frost risk typically end in Queens County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Queens County typically lands around Mar 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 10.
How long is the growing season in Queens County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Queens County sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 17, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Queens County?
The federal record around Queens County is a meaningful one — 6,452 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (4,005), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Queens County's scale — its 7b band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Queens County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads New York's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Queens County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Queens County's own scale — its own ~256-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 6,452 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Queens County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Queens County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~256-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Queens CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 6,452 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Queens County's boundary and the 69,583 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Queens County spans, Northeastern Coastal Zone the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Queens County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Queens County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every New York grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New York
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Queens County — the ~256 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Queens County's 69,583 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 6,452 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Queens Countyread your own land →