Village of the Branch, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Village of the Branch, 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 Village of the Branch 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 Village of the Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Village of the Branch — the short answer
Village of the Branch, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 608 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 608 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 Village of the Branch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Village of the Branch's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Village of the Branch
Each reading below is measured for Village of the Branch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVillage of the Branch runs about 234 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
MeasuredVillage of the Branch 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 Village of the Branch is in
Village of the Branch sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Village of the Branch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Suffolk County.
What Grows in Village of the Branch
Every plant below cleared Village of the Branch's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Village of the Branch?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Village of the Branch
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Village of the Branch, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Village of the Branch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Village of the Branch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PSEG LONG ISLANDBrownfields · 950 ft
- SMITHTOWN MEDICAL SPECIALISTSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- BRANCH CHIROPRACTIC SERVICES PCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- SCOTT R CAPUSTIN MDBrownfields · 1300 ft
- DRS MIRZA MANGO & SATLOW PCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- DRS GLASS & INSERRA MD PCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- RHEUMATOLOGY ASSOCIATES OF LONG ISLANDBrownfields · 2200 ft
- BLOOMING NAILSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- AIDA'S DRY CLEANER INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- ROBERT'S CLEANERBrownfields · 2500 ft
- J F DIANDREA CORPBrownfields · 2500 ft
- GETTY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Village of the Branch'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 Village of the Branch.
Total Sites
2,632
within ~10 miles of Village of the Branch
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
23 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Village of the Branch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Village of the Branch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Village of the Branch, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Village of the Branch — Nitrate (1,074 sites) and Brownfields (1,305 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Village of the Branch
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 Village of the Branch average
Your land is one point inside Village of the Branch
Everything above resolves to Village of the Branch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 608 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 Village of the Branch Average
Village of the Branch Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Village of the Branch
- ●One soil character for all of Village of the Branch
- ●Frost dates read at Village of the Branch's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Village of the Branch's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Village of the Branch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Village of the Branch, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Village of the Branch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Village of the Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Village of the Branch average
How we know this about Village of the Branch
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 Village of the Branch’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 Village of the Branch
When does frost risk typically end in Village of the Branch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Village of the Branch typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Village of the Branch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Village of the Branch typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Village of the Branch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Village of the Branch sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Nov 2, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Village of the Branch?
The federal record around Village of the Branch runs heavier than most — 2,632 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,305), 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 Village of the Branch?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Village of the Branch's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Village of the Branch'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 Village of the Branch’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Village of the Branch's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 608 acres it covers and 2,632 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Village of the Branch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Village of the Branch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 16 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,632 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Village of the Branch, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Village of the Branch's boundary and the 608 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Village of the Branch's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Village of the Branchlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Village of the Branch's 608 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Suffolk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Suffolk 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 Suffolk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Village of the Branch's 608 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Village of the Branch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 608 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 Village of the Branch-wide figureread your own land →