Hawthorne, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Hawthorne, 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 Hawthorne 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 Hawthorne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hawthorne — the short answer
Hawthorne, New York: USDA zone 7a, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 703 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 703 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 7a is Hawthorne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hawthorne's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hawthorne
Each reading below is measured for Hawthorne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHawthorne runs about 233 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
MeasuredHawthorne sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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
The kind of country Hawthorne is in
Hawthorne sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hawthorne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Westchester County.
What Grows in Hawthorne
Every plant below cleared Hawthorne's own zone 7a and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hawthorne?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Hawthorne
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Hawthorne, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hawthorne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hawthorne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MT PLEASANT TOWN - HAWTHORNE PUMP STATIONBrownfields · 600 ft
- THE SIGN WORKSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 5502031 & 5502032Brownfields · 1500 ft
- AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC - HNY3Brownfields · 1500 ft
- ASTRA TOOLBrownfields · 1800 ft
- A-1 DRY CLEANING CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2000 ft
- NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SPECBrownfields · 2200 ft
- NYS DOT BIN 5502109 TACONIC STATE PKWY RAMPS OVER SAW MILL RIVER PKWYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 5502091Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 5502092Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- GATE OF HEAVEN CEMETERYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- NYS DOTBIN 5006132 SAW MILL RIVER PKWY OVER ROUTE 9ABrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hawthorne'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 Hawthorne.
Total Sites
1,055
within ~10 miles of Hawthorne
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hawthorne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hawthorne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hawthorne, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hawthorne — PFAS (21 sites) and Brownfields (761 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Hawthorne
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 Hawthorne average
Your land is one point inside Hawthorne
Everything above resolves to Hawthorne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 703 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 Hawthorne Average
Hawthorne Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Hawthorne
- ●One soil character for all of Hawthorne
- ●Frost dates read at Hawthorne's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hawthorne's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hawthorne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hawthorne, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hawthorne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hawthorne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hawthorne average
How we know this about Hawthorne
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 Hawthorne’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 Hawthorne
When does frost risk typically end in Hawthorne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hawthorne typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Hawthorne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hawthorne typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hawthorne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hawthorne sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Nov 4, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hawthorne?
The federal record around Hawthorne is a meaningful one — 1,055 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (761), the nearest Brownfields 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hawthorne?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hawthorne's scale — its 7a band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hawthorne'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 Hawthorne’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hawthorne's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 703 acres it covers and 1,055 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hawthorne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hawthorne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 18 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,055 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hawthorne, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hawthorne's boundary and the 703 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hawthorne's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hawthornelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hawthorne's 703 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Westchester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Westchester 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 Westchester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hawthorne's 703 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hawthorne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 703 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Hawthorne-wide figureread your own land →
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