North Sea, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in North Sea, 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 Sea 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 Sea — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
North Sea — the short answer
North Sea, New York: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 7a is North Sea's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Sea's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Sea
Each reading below is measured for North Sea itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Sea runs about 222 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 Sea sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Sea is in
North Sea sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Sea's own centroid rather than borrowed from Suffolk County.
What Grows in North Sea
Every plant below cleared North Sea's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Sea?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Sea
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from North Sea, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Sea
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Sea. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORTH SEA MUNICIPAL LANDFILLSuperfund · 1500 ft
- S 48432. 1Nitrate · 2400 ft
- S 57807. 1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- BRUCE H KREYMBORG COBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- S 71892. 1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- S 69511. 1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- S 8831. 1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- S 8831. 3Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- S 58957. 1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- S 58956. 1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- S 46529. 2Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- TOWN OF GUILFORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Sea'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 Sea.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Sea
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Sea
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Sea, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 342 sites within ~10 miles of North Sea. 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 Sea
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 Sea average
Your land is one point inside North Sea
Everything above resolves to North Sea as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Sea Average
North Sea Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across North Sea
- ●One soil character for all of North Sea
- ●Frost dates read at North Sea's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Sea's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Sea
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Sea, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Sea averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Sea — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Sea average
How we know this about North Sea
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 Sea’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 Sea
When does frost risk typically end in North Sea?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Sea typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in North Sea?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Sea typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Sea?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Sea sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 29, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Sea?
The federal record around North Sea is a meaningful one — 507 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (342), the nearest Superfund record about 0.3 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 North Sea?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Sea's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Sea'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 Sea’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Sea's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,075 acres it covers and 507 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Sea's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Sea's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 12 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 507 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Sea, the closest Superfund record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Sea's boundary and the 7,075 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Sea's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Sealydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Sea's 7,075 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 North Sea's 7,075 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Sea you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,075 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Sea-wide figureread your own land →
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