Shrub Oak, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Shrub Oak, 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 Shrub Oak 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 Shrub Oak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Shrub Oak — the short answer
Shrub Oak, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6b is Shrub Oak's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shrub Oak's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shrub Oak
Each reading below is measured for Shrub Oak itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShrub Oak runs about 215 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
MeasuredShrub Oak sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Shrub Oak is in
Shrub Oak sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shrub Oak's own centroid rather than borrowed from Westchester County.
What Grows in Shrub Oak
Every plant below cleared Shrub Oak's own zone 6b and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shrub Oak?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Shrub Oak
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Shrub Oak, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Shrub Oak
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shrub Oak. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NYSDEC SPILL #1010260 R 3Brownfields · 1800 ft
- MR CLEANERSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- LAKELAND HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2000 ft
- ACME #2830Brownfields · 2000 ft
- HANNAWA FALLS VOL. FIRE DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MIDDLE FALLS LINE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LAKELAND COPPER BEECH MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PHOENIX ACADEMYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CLASSIC CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1078630Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #2550Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- RITE PRICE CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shrub Oak'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 Shrub Oak.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shrub Oak
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shrub Oak
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shrub Oak, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Shrub Oak — PFAS (12 sites) and Brownfields (276 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Shrub Oak
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 Shrub Oak average
Your land is one point inside Shrub Oak
Everything above resolves to Shrub Oak as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Shrub Oak Average
Shrub Oak Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Shrub Oak
- ●One soil character for all of Shrub Oak
- ●Frost dates read at Shrub Oak's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shrub Oak's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shrub Oak
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shrub Oak, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shrub Oak averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shrub Oak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shrub Oak average
How we know this about Shrub Oak
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 Shrub Oak’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 Shrub Oak
When does frost risk typically end in Shrub Oak?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shrub Oak typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Shrub Oak?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shrub Oak typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shrub Oak?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shrub Oak sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 23, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shrub Oak?
The federal record around Shrub Oak runs heavier than most — 554 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (276), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Shrub Oak?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shrub Oak's scale — its 6b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shrub Oak'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 Shrub Oak’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Shrub Oak's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,010 acres it covers and 554 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shrub Oak's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shrub Oak's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 6 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 554 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shrub Oak, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shrub Oak's boundary and the 1,010 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shrub Oak's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Shrub Oaklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shrub Oak's 1,010 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 Shrub Oak's 1,010 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shrub Oak you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,010 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Shrub Oak-wide figureread your own land →