West Haverstraw, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in West Haverstraw, 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 West Haverstraw 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 West Haverstraw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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West Haverstraw — the short answer
West Haverstraw, New York: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 972 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 972 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 West Haverstraw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Haverstraw's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Haverstraw
Each reading below is measured for West Haverstraw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWest Haverstraw runs about 231 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
MeasuredWest Haverstraw 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 West Haverstraw is in
West Haverstraw sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at West Haverstraw's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rockland County.
What Grows in West Haverstraw
Every plant below cleared West Haverstraw's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West Haverstraw?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 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 West Haverstraw
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from West Haverstraw, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near West Haverstraw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Haverstraw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAMSONDALE CLEANERSBrownfields · 450 ft
- HESS STATION #32301Brownfields · 700 ft
- SPEEDWAY #7628Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ROBERT'S CLEANERSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SHELL SERVICE STATION & FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #13334Brownfields · 1300 ft
- ST CABRINI HOME INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HAVERSTRAW SERVICE STATION LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- COVENTRY COATINGS CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- COVENTRY COATINGS CORPBrownfields · 1700 ft
- TEMCO UNIFORMS SITE FORMERLY - NYSDEC CLEANUPBrownfields · 1900 ft
- ABDO CONSTRUCTIONSuperfund · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West Haverstraw'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 West Haverstraw.
Total Sites
658
within ~10 miles of West Haverstraw
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Haverstraw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Haverstraw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West Haverstraw, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of West Haverstraw — PFAS (12 sites) and Superfund (13 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in West Haverstraw
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 West Haverstraw average
Your land is one point inside West Haverstraw
Everything above resolves to West Haverstraw as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 972 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 West Haverstraw Average
West Haverstraw Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across West Haverstraw
- ●One soil character for all of West Haverstraw
- ●Frost dates read at West Haverstraw's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Haverstraw's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Haverstraw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Haverstraw, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Haverstraw averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Haverstraw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Haverstraw average
How we know this about West Haverstraw
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 West Haverstraw’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 West Haverstraw
When does frost risk typically end in West Haverstraw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Haverstraw 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 West Haverstraw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Haverstraw 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 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Haverstraw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Haverstraw sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Nov 2, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Haverstraw?
The federal record around West Haverstraw is a meaningful one — 658 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (420), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 West Haverstraw?
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 West Haverstraw's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West Haverstraw'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 West Haverstraw’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at West Haverstraw's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 972 acres it covers and 658 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Haverstraw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- West Haverstraw's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 16 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 658 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Haverstraw, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Haverstraw's boundary and the 972 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at West Haverstraw's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of West Haverstrawlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so West Haverstraw's 972 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 West Haverstraw's 972 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West Haverstraw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 972 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 West Haverstraw-wide figureread your own land →
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