Head of the Harbor, 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.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Head of the Harbor, 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 Head of the Harbor 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 Head of the Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Head of the Harbor — the short answer
Head of the Harbor, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Head of the Harbor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Head of the Harbor's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Head of the Harbor
Each reading below is measured for Head of the Harbor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHead of the Harbor runs about 239 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
MeasuredHead of the Harbor 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
The kind of country Head of the Harbor is in
Head of the Harbor sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Head of the Harbor's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Suffolk County is mostly Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Head of the Harbor
Every plant below cleared Head of the Harbor's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Head of the Harbor?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Head of the Harbor
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Head of the Harbor, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Head of the Harbor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Head of the Harbor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JB POLO CLEANERS INC.Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- PENNYS NORTH COUNTRY CAR CAREBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SALS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL - CABINET SHOPBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ST JAMES CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CUSTOM AUTOCRAFTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- QUEST LASER SERVICES INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SAMA MILLWORK INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CDM DYNAMICSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MESOSCRIBE TECHNOLOGIESBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SOLARSUN INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ASKD KARATE-DOBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Head of the Harbor'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 Head of the Harbor.
Total Sites
2,036
within ~10 miles of Head of the Harbor
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
12 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Head of the Harbor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Head of the Harbor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Head of the Harbor, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Head of the Harbor — Nitrate (870 sites) and Brownfields (991 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Head of the Harbor
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 Head of the Harbor average
Your land is one point inside Head of the Harbor
Everything above resolves to Head of the Harbor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Head of the Harbor Average
Head of the Harbor Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Head of the Harbor
- ●One soil character for all of Head of the Harbor
- ●Frost dates read at Head of the Harbor's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Head of the Harbor's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Head of the Harbor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Head of the Harbor, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Head of the Harbor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Head of the Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Head of the Harbor average
How we know this about Head of the Harbor
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 Head of the Harbor’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 Head of the Harbor
When does frost risk typically end in Head of the Harbor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Head of the Harbor typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Head of the Harbor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Head of the Harbor typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Head of the Harbor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Head of the Harbor sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Nov 8, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Head of the Harbor?
The federal record around Head of the Harbor runs heavier than most — 2,036 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (991), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Head of the Harbor?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Head of the Harbor's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Head of the Harbor'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 Head of the Harbor’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Head of the Harbor's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,796 acres it covers and 2,036 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Head of the Harbor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Head of the Harbor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 22 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,036 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Head of the Harbor, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Head of the Harbor's boundary and the 1,796 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Head of the Harbor sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Head of the Harborlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Head of the Harbor's 1,796 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 Head of the Harbor's 1,796 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Head of the Harbor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,796 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Head of the Harbor-wide figureread your own land →