Island Park, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Island Park, 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 Island Park 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 Island Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Island Park — the short answer
Island Park, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 285 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 285 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 Island Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Island Park's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Island Park
Each reading below is measured for Island Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIsland Park runs about 253 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
MeasuredIsland Park 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 Island Park is in
Island Park sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Island Park's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Nassau County is mostly Northeastern Coastal Zone. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Island Park
Every plant below cleared Island Park's own zone 7b and its 253-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Island Park?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Island Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Island Park, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Island Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Island Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SWAN FAY CLEANERSBrownfields · 750 ft
- NORTHFIELD PRECISION INSTS CORBrownfields · 1300 ft
- JONES BEACH STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- USA PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HESS CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1500 ft
- C & P SURFACEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- PRO AUTO INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- SEEDWAY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SMOOTH EDGE COLLISIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MEDXWASTE NY LLC - DBA RED BAGSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- J & J CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- NASSAU COUNTY DPWBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Island Park'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 Island Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Island Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Island Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Island Park, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 1,536 sites within ~10 miles of Island Park. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Island Park
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 Island Park average
Your land is one point inside Island Park
Everything above resolves to Island Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 285 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 Island Park Average
Island Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Island Park
- ●One soil character for all of Island Park
- ●Frost dates read at Island Park's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Island Park's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Island Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Island Park, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Island Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Island Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Island Park average
How we know this about Island Park
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 Island Park’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 Island Park
When does frost risk typically end in Island Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Island Park typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Island Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Island Park typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 253 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Island Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Island Park sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 14, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Island Park?
The federal record around Island Park runs heavier than most — 3,546 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (1,536), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Island Park?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Island Park's scale — its 7b band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Island Park'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 Island Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Island Park's own scale — its own ~253-day season between 28°F freezes, the 285 acres it covers and 3,546 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Island Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Island Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 28 and the ~253-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,546 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Island Park, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Island Park's boundary and the 285 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Island Park sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Island Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Island Park's 285 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 Island Park's 285 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Island Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 285 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 Island Park-wide figureread your own land →
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