Peekskill, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Peekskill, 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 Peekskill 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 Peekskill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Peekskill — the short answer
Peekskill, New York: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Peekskill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peekskill's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Peekskill
Each reading below is measured for Peekskill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPeekskill runs about 231 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
MeasuredPeekskill 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 Peekskill is in
Peekskill sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Peekskill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Westchester County.
What Grows in Peekskill
Every plant below cleared Peekskill's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Peekskill?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 Peekskill
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Peekskill, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Peekskill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Peekskill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PEEKSKILL CITY OFBrownfields · 75 ft
- RON'S SERVICE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- DOMENIC CLEANERSBrownfields · 750 ft
- CONSOLIDATED EDISON PEEKSKILL SUBBrownfields · 1000 ft
- PEEKSKILL DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS (DPW)Brownfields · 1500 ft
- PEEKSKILL CITY SCHOOL DISTBrownfields · 1700 ft
- PARK STREET CLEANERSBrownfields · 1800 ft
- PEEKSKILL CITYPFAS · 2000 ft
- EM AUTOBODY INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- NYSOMH-RPC-PEEKSKILL SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 2300 ft
- PEEKSKILL AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2500 ft
- KEITHS AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Peekskill'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 Peekskill.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Peekskill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Peekskill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Peekskill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Peekskill — PFAS (9 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Peekskill
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 Peekskill average
Your land is one point inside Peekskill
Everything above resolves to Peekskill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 city 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 Peekskill Average
Peekskill Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Peekskill
- ●One soil character for all of Peekskill
- ●Frost dates read at Peekskill's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peekskill's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Peekskill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peekskill, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peekskill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peekskill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peekskill average
How we know this about Peekskill
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Peekskill’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Peekskill
When does frost risk typically end in Peekskill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peekskill typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Peekskill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Peekskill typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Peekskill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peekskill sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Nov 3, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peekskill?
The federal record around Peekskill is a meaningful one — 495 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (269), 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 Peekskill?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Peekskill's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peekskill'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 Peekskill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Peekskill's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,780 acres it covers and 495 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peekskill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Peekskill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 17 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 495 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Peekskill, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Peekskill's boundary and the 2,780 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Peekskill's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Peekskilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Peekskill's 2,780 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Westchester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Westchester 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 Westchester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Peekskill's 2,780 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Peekskill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,780 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 Peekskill-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Growing region