Sparkill, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Sparkill, 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 Sparkill 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 Sparkill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sparkill — the short answer
Sparkill, New York: USDA zone 7a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 339 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 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 339 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 Sparkill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sparkill's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sparkill
Each reading below is measured for Sparkill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSparkill runs about 241 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
MeasuredSparkill 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 Sparkill is in
Sparkill sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sparkill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rockland County.
What Grows in Sparkill
Every plant below cleared Sparkill's own zone 7a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sparkill?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 22 — 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 Sparkill
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Sparkill, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sparkill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sparkill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PALISADES PARKWAY SERVICES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- VILLAGE AUTO BODY (1 VALENTINE AVENUE INBrownfields · 2100 ft
- RO 287Nitrate · 2200 ft
- COUNTY AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2300 ft
- SUFFERN VILLAGE OF WASTE WATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 2400 ft
- CHRYSLER GROUP LLC - NEW YORK PDCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1045340Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- DOMINICAN SISTERS OF SPARKILLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ROCKLAND COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TAPPAN ZEE ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TOWN OF ORANGETOWN HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ST. THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE OBSERVATORYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sparkill'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 Sparkill.
Total Sites
2,258
within ~10 miles of Sparkill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
29 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sparkill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sparkill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sparkill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sparkill — Superfund (29 sites) and Brownfields (1,097 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Sparkill
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 Sparkill average
Your land is one point inside Sparkill
Everything above resolves to Sparkill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 339 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 Sparkill Average
Sparkill Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Sparkill
- ●One soil character for all of Sparkill
- ●Frost dates read at Sparkill's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sparkill's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sparkill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sparkill, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sparkill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sparkill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sparkill average
How we know this about Sparkill
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 Sparkill’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 Sparkill
When does frost risk typically end in Sparkill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sparkill 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 Sparkill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sparkill typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sparkill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sparkill sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Nov 8, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sparkill?
The federal record around Sparkill is a meaningful one — 2,258 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,097), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Sparkill?
From about Oct 23 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 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 Nov 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sparkill's scale — its 7a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sparkill'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 Sparkill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sparkill's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 339 acres it covers and 2,258 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sparkill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sparkill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 22 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,258 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sparkill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sparkill's boundary and the 339 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sparkill's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Sparkilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sparkill's 339 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 Sparkill's 339 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sparkill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 339 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sparkill-wide figureread your own land →
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