Nyack, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nyack, 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 Nyack 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 Nyack — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nyack — the short answer
Nyack, New York: USDA zone 7a, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 493 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 493 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 Nyack's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nyack's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nyack
Each reading below is measured for Nyack itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNyack runs about 240 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
MeasuredNyack 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 Nyack is in
Nyack sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Nyack's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rockland County.
What Grows in Nyack
Every plant below cleared Nyack's own zone 7a and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nyack?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Nyack
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Nyack, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Nyack
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nyack. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ORANGE & ROCKLAND UTILITIES-NYACK MGP SITEBrownfields · 150 ft
- ALL PHASE AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- NYS THRUWAY AUTHORITYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- NYACK DRY CLEANING & CUSTOM TAILORINGBrownfields · 1900 ft
- HENNINGSON DURHAM & RICHARDSON ARCHITECTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- JOHN MURRAY MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NYACK HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- NYACK HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NYACK UFSD - OLD NYACK HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BOCES EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER - BERCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- IMPERIAL COLLISIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SOUTH NYACK DPWBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nyack'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 Nyack.
Total Sites
1,378
within ~10 miles of Nyack
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
22 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nyack
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nyack
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nyack, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Nyack — PFAS (21 sites) and Superfund (22 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Nyack
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 Nyack average
Your land is one point inside Nyack
Everything above resolves to Nyack as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 493 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 Nyack Average
Nyack Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Nyack
- ●One soil character for all of Nyack
- ●Frost dates read at Nyack's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nyack's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nyack
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nyack, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nyack averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nyack — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nyack average
How we know this about Nyack
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 Nyack’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 Nyack
When does frost risk typically end in Nyack?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nyack typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Nyack?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nyack typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nyack?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nyack sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Nov 7, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nyack?
The federal record around Nyack is a meaningful one — 1,378 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (834), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Nyack?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nyack's scale — its 7a band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nyack'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 Nyack’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Nyack's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 493 acres it covers and 1,378 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nyack's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nyack's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 21 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,378 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nyack, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nyack's boundary and the 493 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nyack's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Nyacklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nyack's 493 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rockland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rockland 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 Rockland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nyack's 493 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nyack you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 493 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Nyack-wide figureread your own land →