Russell Gardens, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Russell Gardens, 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 Russell Gardens 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 Russell Gardens — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Russell Gardens — the short answer
Russell Gardens, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 111 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 111 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 Russell Gardens's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Russell Gardens's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Russell Gardens
Each reading below is measured for Russell Gardens itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRussell Gardens runs about 252 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
MeasuredRussell Gardens 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 Russell Gardens is in
Russell Gardens sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Russell Gardens's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nassau County.
What Grows in Russell Gardens
Every plant below cleared Russell Gardens's own zone 7b and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Russell Gardens?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — 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 Russell Gardens
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Russell Gardens, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Russell Gardens
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Russell Gardens. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ACKERMAN KENNETH DRBrownfields · 1200 ft
- N 7087. 1Nitrate · 1500 ft
- HESS CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1700 ft
- HESS #32337Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WEGO CHEMICAL GROUPToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- N 8431. 1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- RITE AID #4861Brownfields · 1900 ft
- N 6088. 1Nitrate · 1900 ft
- CLASSIC CLEANERSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- NORMAN COLLISION WORKSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- EUROTECH AUTOBrownfields · 2000 ft
- SUN MART VALETBrownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Russell Gardens'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 Russell Gardens.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Russell Gardens
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Russell Gardens
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Russell Gardens
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 Russell Gardens average
Your land is one point inside Russell Gardens
Everything above resolves to Russell Gardens as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 111 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 Russell Gardens Average
Russell Gardens Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Russell Gardens
- ●One soil character for all of Russell Gardens
- ●Frost dates read at Russell Gardens's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Russell Gardens's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Russell Gardens
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Russell Gardens, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Russell Gardens averages can't show:
We read public map data around Russell Gardens — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Russell Gardens average
How we know this about Russell Gardens
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 Russell Gardens’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 Russell Gardens
When does frost risk typically end in Russell Gardens?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Russell Gardens typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Russell Gardens?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Russell Gardens typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Russell Gardens?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Russell Gardens sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 16, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Russell Gardens?
The federal record around Russell Gardens runs heavier than most — 9,325 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,978), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Russell Gardens?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Russell Gardens's scale — its 7b band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Russell Gardens'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 Russell Gardens’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Russell Gardens's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 111 acres it covers and 9,325 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Russell Gardens's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Russell Gardens's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 30 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 9,325 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Russell Gardens, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Russell Gardens's boundary and the 111 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Russell Gardens's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Russell Gardenslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Russell Gardens's 111 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 Russell Gardens's 111 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Russell Gardens you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 111 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Russell Gardens-wide figureread your own land →