Mineola, 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.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Mineola, 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 Mineola 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 Mineola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mineola — the short answer
Mineola, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- 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 Mineola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mineola's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mineola
Each reading below is measured for Mineola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMineola runs about 245 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
MeasuredMineola 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 Mineola is in
Mineola sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mineola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nassau County.
What Grows in Mineola
Every plant below cleared Mineola's own zone 7b and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mineola?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 Mineola
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Mineola, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mineola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mineola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MINEOLA (V)PFAS · 250 ft
- MINEOLA MEDICAL LABORATORYBrownfields · 550 ft
- N 98. 1Nitrate · 850 ft
- N 97. 1Nitrate · 900 ft
- N 8576. 1Nitrate · 900 ft
- N 9942. 1Nitrate · 950 ft
- PINE CLEANERSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- BRECKNOCK HALL PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- N 1139. 1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- AERO TRADES MFG CORPBrownfields · 1400 ft
- D REIS FURNITURE MFG CORPBrownfields · 1600 ft
- N 2399. 1Nitrate · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mineola'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 Mineola.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mineola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mineola
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mineola, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 2,998 sites within ~10 miles of Mineola. 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 Mineola
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 Mineola average
Your land is one point inside Mineola
Everything above resolves to Mineola 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 Mineola Average
Mineola Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Mineola
- ●One soil character for all of Mineola
- ●Frost dates read at Mineola's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mineola's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mineola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mineola, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mineola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mineola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mineola average
How we know this about Mineola
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 Mineola’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 Mineola
When does frost risk typically end in Mineola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mineola typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Mineola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mineola typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mineola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mineola sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 11, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mineola?
The federal record around Mineola runs heavier than most — 7,010 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (2,998), the nearest PFAS 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 Mineola?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mineola's scale — its 7b band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mineola'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 Mineola’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mineola's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,185 acres it covers and 7,010 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mineola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mineola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 25 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7,010 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mineola, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mineola's boundary and the 1,185 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mineola's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mineolalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mineola's 1,185 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 Mineola's 1,185 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mineola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,185 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Mineola-wide figureread your own land →