Gilgo, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gilgo, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Gilgo lot. 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 Gilgo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gilgo — the short answer
Gilgo, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Gilgo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gilgo's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gilgo
Each reading below is measured for Gilgo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGilgo runs about 247 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGilgo sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
What Grows in Gilgo
Every plant below cleared Gilgo's own zone 7b and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gilgo?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Gilgo
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Gilgo, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gilgo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gilgo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- S 12. 1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- S 67087. 2Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- S 67537. 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- S 66136. 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- S 79407. 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- S 79408. 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- C-O NYS OFFICE PARKS REC & HIST PRESVBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- COAST GUARD STATION FIRE ISLANDBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #7621Brownfields · 2.3 mi
- OUR BEST CLEANERBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- SOUTHGATE ANIMAL HOSPITAL AT COPIAGUEBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- IANNO FRANKLYN P DRBrownfields · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gilgo'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 Gilgo.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gilgo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gilgo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gilgo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gilgo — Nitrate (1,186 sites) and Superfund (38 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Gilgo
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 Gilgo average
Your land is one point inside Gilgo
Everything above resolves to Gilgo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Gilgo Average
Gilgo Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Gilgo
- ●One soil character for all of Gilgo
- ●Frost dates read at Gilgo's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gilgo's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gilgo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gilgo, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gilgo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gilgo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gilgo average
How we know this about Gilgo
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Gilgo’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Gilgo
When does frost risk typically end in Gilgo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gilgo typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Gilgo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gilgo typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gilgo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gilgo sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 10, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gilgo?
The federal record around Gilgo runs heavier than most — 2,241 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (1,186), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gilgo?
From about Oct 25 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gilgo's scale — its 7b band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gilgo's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Gilgo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gilgo's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,212 acres it covers and 2,241 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gilgo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gilgo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 24 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,241 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gilgo, the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gilgo's boundary and the 3,212 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gilgolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gilgo's 3,212 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Suffolk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Suffolk County
- The growing challenges every New York grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New York
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Suffolk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gilgo's 3,212 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gilgo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,212 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Gilgo-wide figureread your own land →