Middle Island, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Middle Island, 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 Middle Island 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 Middle Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Middle Island — the short answer
Middle Island, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 5K 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Middle Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Middle Island's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Middle Island
Each reading below is measured for Middle Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMiddle Island runs about 232 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
MeasuredMiddle Island 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 Middle Island is in
Middle Island sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Middle Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Suffolk County.
What Grows in Middle Island
Every plant below cleared Middle Island's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Middle Island?
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 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Middle Island
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Middle Island, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Middle Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Middle Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUALITY CLEANERSBrownfields · 2300 ft
- OLDCASTLE PRECAST INCToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- S 47218. 1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- FIRST STUDENT INC #20917Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- S 36711. 1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- S 40161. 1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- S 49606. 1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WALMART #2156Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- HALE & LYNCH FUNERAL HOME INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- KMART - TSSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SERVICE STATION - SAP 100188Brownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Middle Island'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 Middle Island.
Total Sites
1,677
within ~10 miles of Middle Island
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Middle Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Middle Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Middle Island, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 1,012 sites within ~10 miles of Middle Island. 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 Middle Island
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 Middle Island average
Your land is one point inside Middle Island
Everything above resolves to Middle Island as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Middle Island Average
Middle Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Middle Island
- ●One soil character for all of Middle Island
- ●Frost dates read at Middle Island's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Middle Island's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Middle Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Middle Island, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Middle Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Middle Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Middle Island average
How we know this about Middle Island
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 Middle Island’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 Middle Island
When does frost risk typically end in Middle Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Middle Island 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 Middle Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Middle Island typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Middle Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Middle Island sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Nov 1, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Middle Island?
The federal record around Middle Island is a meaningful one — 1,677 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (1,012), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Middle Island?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Middle Island's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Middle Island'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 Middle Island’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Middle Island's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,260 acres it covers and 1,677 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Middle Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Middle Island's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 15 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,677 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Middle Island, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Middle Island's boundary and the 5,260 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Middle Island's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Middle Islandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Middle Island's 5,260 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 Middle Island's 5,260 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Middle Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,260 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Middle Island-wide figureread your own land →
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