North Merrick, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Merrick, 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 North Merrick 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 North Merrick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Merrick — the short answer
North Merrick, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 243 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 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- 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 North Merrick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Merrick's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Merrick
Each reading below is measured for North Merrick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Merrick runs about 243 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
MeasuredNorth Merrick 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 North Merrick is in
North Merrick sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Merrick's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nassau County.
What Grows in North Merrick
Every plant below cleared North Merrick's own zone 7b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Merrick?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around North Merrick
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from North Merrick, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Merrick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Merrick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CUMBERLAND FARMS#70292Brownfields · 1400 ft
- AMOCO SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 1500 ft
- SHELL SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NYSDOTBrownfields · 2100 ft
- BELLMORE MERRICK CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2100 ft
- N 8265. 1Nitrate · 2600 ft
- N 1183. 1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- NU-SMILE CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- TICKET CRAFTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- N 9400. 2Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- BPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- N 3894. 2Nitrate · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Merrick'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 North Merrick.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Merrick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Merrick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Merrick, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 2,894 sites within ~10 miles of North Merrick. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 North Merrick
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 North Merrick average
Your land is one point inside North Merrick
Everything above resolves to North Merrick 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 North Merrick Average
North Merrick Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across North Merrick
- ●One soil character for all of North Merrick
- ●Frost dates read at North Merrick's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Merrick's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Merrick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Merrick, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Merrick averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Merrick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Merrick average
How we know this about North Merrick
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 North Merrick’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 North Merrick
When does frost risk typically end in North Merrick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Merrick 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 North Merrick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Merrick typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Merrick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Merrick sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 9, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Merrick?
The federal record around North Merrick runs heavier than most — 5,231 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (2,894), 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 North Merrick?
From about Oct 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 Nov 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Merrick's scale — its 7b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Merrick'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 North Merrick’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Merrick's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,100 acres it covers and 5,231 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Merrick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Merrick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 23 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,231 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Merrick, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Merrick's boundary and the 1,100 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Merrick's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Merricklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Merrick's 1,100 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 North Merrick's 1,100 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Merrick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,100 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 North Merrick-wide figureread your own land →