Valhalla, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Valhalla, 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 Valhalla 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 Valhalla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Valhalla — the short answer
Valhalla, New York: USDA zone 7a, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 531 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 531 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 Valhalla's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valhalla's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valhalla
Each reading below is measured for Valhalla itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValhalla runs about 233 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
MeasuredValhalla 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 Valhalla is in
Valhalla sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Valhalla's own centroid rather than borrowed from Westchester County.
What Grows in Valhalla
Every plant below cleared Valhalla's own zone 7a and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valhalla?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Valhalla
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Valhalla, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Valhalla
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valhalla. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHARLES STOTZ INCBrownfields · 900 ft
- BOCES SOUTHERN WESTCHESTERBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- KENSICO WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 0.7 mi
- WESTCHESTER COUNTY WD #3PFAS · 0.7 mi
- NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- NYC DEP KENSICO RESERVOIRBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- WE 53Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- FARRAND CONTROLS DIVISIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SAFETY-KLEEN NE INC OFF SITE CLEAN UPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- WESTCHESTER COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- NYC DEPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MOUNT PLEASANT TOWN OF VALHALLA PUMP STABrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valhalla'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 Valhalla.
Total Sites
1,239
within ~10 miles of Valhalla
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valhalla
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valhalla
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valhalla, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Valhalla — PFAS (20 sites) and Brownfields (903 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 Valhalla
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 Valhalla average
Your land is one point inside Valhalla
Everything above resolves to Valhalla as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 531 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 Valhalla Average
Valhalla Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Valhalla
- ●One soil character for all of Valhalla
- ●Frost dates read at Valhalla's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valhalla's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valhalla
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valhalla, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valhalla averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valhalla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valhalla average
How we know this about Valhalla
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 Valhalla’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 Valhalla
When does frost risk typically end in Valhalla?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valhalla typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Valhalla?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valhalla typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valhalla?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valhalla sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Nov 4, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valhalla?
The federal record around Valhalla is a meaningful one — 1,239 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (903), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Valhalla?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valhalla's scale — its 7a band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valhalla'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 Valhalla’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Valhalla's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 531 acres it covers and 1,239 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valhalla's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valhalla's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 18 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,239 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valhalla, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valhalla's boundary and the 531 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valhalla's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Valhallalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valhalla's 531 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 Valhalla's 531 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valhalla you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 531 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 Valhalla-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Growing region
Nearby growing guides