Hempstead, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hempstead, 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 Hempstead 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 Hempstead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hempstead — the short answer
Hempstead, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- 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 Hempstead's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hempstead's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hempstead
Each reading below is measured for Hempstead itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHempstead runs about 248 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
MeasuredHempstead 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 Hempstead is in
Hempstead sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hempstead's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nassau County.
What Grows in Hempstead
Every plant below cleared Hempstead's own zone 7b and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hempstead?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Hempstead
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Hempstead, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hempstead
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hempstead. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HEMPSTEAD SCHOOLBrownfields · 450 ft
- BP PRODUCTS NORTH AMERICA INC - BP 20540Brownfields · 650 ft
- T E J SERVICE INCBrownfields · 650 ft
- N 8512. 1Nitrate · 800 ft
- TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD - TOWN HALLBrownfields · 950 ft
- WALGREENS 3457Brownfields · 950 ft
- NEW YORK TELEPHONE COBrownfields · 1000 ft
- KIMS SUEDE CARE INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE 7563Brownfields · 1400 ft
- JIMMY'S DRY CLEANINGBrownfields · 1400 ft
- N 8039. 1Nitrate · 1600 ft
- HARDER TREE & LANDSCAPE SERVICEBrownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hempstead'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 Hempstead.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hempstead
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hempstead
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hempstead, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 3,016 sites within ~10 miles of Hempstead. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hempstead
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 Hempstead average
Your land is one point inside Hempstead
Everything above resolves to Hempstead 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 Hempstead Average
Hempstead Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hempstead
- ●One soil character for all of Hempstead
- ●Frost dates read at Hempstead's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hempstead's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hempstead
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hempstead, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hempstead averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hempstead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hempstead average
How we know this about Hempstead
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 Hempstead’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 Hempstead
When does frost risk typically end in Hempstead?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hempstead typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Hempstead?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hempstead typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hempstead?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hempstead sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 12, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hempstead?
The federal record around Hempstead runs heavier than most — 6,362 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (3,016), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hempstead?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hempstead's scale — its 7b band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hempstead'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 Hempstead’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hempstead's own scale — its own ~248-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,362 acres it covers and 6,362 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hempstead's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hempstead's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 26 and the ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,362 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hempstead, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hempstead's boundary and the 2,362 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hempstead's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hempsteadlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hempstead's 2,362 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nassau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nassau 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 Nassau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hempstead's 2,362 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hempstead you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,362 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hempstead-wide figureread your own land →