Hillside Lake, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hillside Lake, 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 Hillside Lake 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 Hillside Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hillside Lake — the short answer
Hillside Lake, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 335 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 335 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 6b is Hillside Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hillside Lake's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hillside Lake
Each reading below is measured for Hillside Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHillside Lake runs about 195 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHillside Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Hillside Lake is in
Hillside Lake sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hillside Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dutchess County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hillside Lake
Every plant below cleared Hillside Lake's own zone 6b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hillside Lake?
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 Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Hillside Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Hillside Lake, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hillside Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hillside Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DU3177Nitrate · 1500 ft
- SWARTZ MART INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- COASTAL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HANDY RENT-ALL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HOPEWELL PRECISIONSuperfund · 0.8 mi
- HOPEWELL PRECISIONBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MID HUDSON MEDICAL GROUP PCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- FLORY'S CORP/MOBIL ON THE RUNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- DU4128Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- E FISHKILL FIRE DIST/TOWN POLIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PLAZA DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- JIMS AUTO SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hillside Lake'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 Hillside Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hillside Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hillside Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hillside Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hillside Lake — Superfund (13 sites) and PFAS (8 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Hillside Lake
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 Hillside Lake average
Your land is one point inside Hillside Lake
Everything above resolves to Hillside Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 335 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 Hillside Lake Average
Hillside Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hillside Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Hillside Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Hillside Lake's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hillside Lake's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hillside Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hillside Lake, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hillside Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hillside Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hillside Lake average
How we know this about Hillside Lake
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 Hillside Lake’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 Hillside Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Hillside Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hillside Lake typically lands around Apr 12, 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 May 3.
When is the first frost in Hillside Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hillside Lake typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hillside Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hillside Lake sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 10, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hillside Lake?
The federal record around Hillside Lake runs heavier than most — 846 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (522), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Hillside Lake?
From about Sep 24 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 Oct 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 Oct 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hillside Lake's scale — its 6b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hillside Lake'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 Hillside Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hillside Lake's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 335 acres it covers and 846 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hillside Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hillside Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 24 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 846 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hillside Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hillside Lake's boundary and the 335 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hillside Lake 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 Hillside Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hillside Lake's 335 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dutchess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dutchess 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 Dutchess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hillside Lake's 335 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hillside Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 335 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Hillside Lake-wide figureread your own land →