Pleasant Valley, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pleasant Valley, 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 Pleasant Valley 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 Pleasant Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pleasant Valley — the short answer
Pleasant Valley, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 694 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 694 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 6a is Pleasant Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pleasant Valley's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pleasant Valley
Each reading below is measured for Pleasant Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPleasant Valley runs about 186 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPleasant Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Pleasant Valley is in
Pleasant Valley sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pleasant Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dutchess County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pleasant Valley
Every plant below cleared Pleasant Valley's own zone 6a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pleasant Valley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Pleasant Valley
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Pleasant Valley, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pleasant Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pleasant Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ACME #2632Brownfields · 650 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE #3551Brownfields · 650 ft
- PLEASANT VALLEY AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #12739Brownfields · 900 ft
- PLEASANT VALLEY FORD, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- VANS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ST STANISLAUS CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GETTY #58730Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MOORHEADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- A-ONE OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- PLEASANT VALLEY SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 2500 ft
- M&R GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pleasant Valley'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 Pleasant Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pleasant Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pleasant Valley — PFAS (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (501 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pleasant Valley
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 Pleasant Valley average
Your land is one point inside Pleasant Valley
Everything above resolves to Pleasant Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 694 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 Pleasant Valley Average
Pleasant Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Pleasant Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Pleasant Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Pleasant Valley's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pleasant Valley's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pleasant Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pleasant Valley, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pleasant Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pleasant Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pleasant Valley average
How we know this about Pleasant Valley
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 Pleasant Valley’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 Pleasant Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Pleasant Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Valley typically lands around Apr 19, 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 May 10.
When is the first frost in Pleasant Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Valley typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pleasant Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pleasant Valley sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 8, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pleasant Valley?
The federal record around Pleasant Valley runs heavier than most — 754 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (501), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Pleasant Valley?
From about Sep 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 Oct 22 (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 Oct 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pleasant Valley's scale — its 6a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pleasant Valley'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 Pleasant Valley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pleasant Valley's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 694 acres it covers and 754 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pleasant Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pleasant Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 22 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 754 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pleasant Valley, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pleasant Valley's boundary and the 694 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pleasant Valley sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pleasant Valleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pleasant Valley's 694 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dutchess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dutchess 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 Dutchess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pleasant Valley's 694 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pleasant Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 694 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Pleasant Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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