Islandia, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Islandia, 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 Islandia 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 Islandia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Islandia — the short answer
Islandia, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Islandia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Islandia's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Islandia
Each reading below is measured for Islandia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIslandia runs about 229 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
MeasuredIslandia 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 Islandia is in
Islandia sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Islandia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Suffolk County.
What Grows in Islandia
Every plant below cleared Islandia's own zone 7b and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Islandia?
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 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 14 — 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 Islandia
Spotted lanternfly documented 0 miles from Islandia, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Islandia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Islandia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COMPUTER ASSOCIATE SITEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- PRINTEX PACKAGINGBrownfields · 1700 ft
- S 33308. 1Nitrate · 2100 ft
- WALMART #2917Brownfields · 2200 ft
- A M P PRINTING INC 2Brownfields · 2400 ft
- ISLANDIA GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- S 24047. 1Nitrate · 2600 ft
- BP SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 2600 ft
- BAB NUCLEAR RADIOLOGY PC FORMERLYBrownfields · 2600 ft
- PRIDE SOLVENTS & CHEM CO INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ARSHILA INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Islandia'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 Islandia.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Islandia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Islandia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Islandia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Islandia — Nitrate (1,102 sites) and Brownfields (1,327 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Islandia
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 Islandia average
Your land is one point inside Islandia
Everything above resolves to Islandia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Islandia Average
Islandia Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Islandia
- ●One soil character for all of Islandia
- ●Frost dates read at Islandia's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Islandia's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Islandia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Islandia, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Islandia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Islandia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Islandia average
How we know this about Islandia
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 Islandia’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 Islandia
When does frost risk typically end in Islandia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Islandia 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 Islandia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Islandia typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Islandia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Islandia sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 31, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Islandia?
The federal record around Islandia runs heavier than most — 2,697 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,327), the nearest Brownfields 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 Islandia?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Islandia's scale — its 7b band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Islandia'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 Islandia’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Islandia's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,417 acres it covers and 2,697 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Islandia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Islandia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 14 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,697 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Islandia, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Islandia's boundary and the 1,417 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Islandia's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Islandialydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Islandia's 1,417 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 Islandia's 1,417 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Islandia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,417 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Islandia-wide figureread your own land →
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