West Kill, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in West Kill, 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 Kill 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 Kill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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West Kill — the short answer
West Kill, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 787 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 787 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 5b is West Kill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Kill's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Kill
Each reading below is measured for West Kill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWest Kill runs about 161 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWest Kill sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Kill is in
West Kill sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at West Kill's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Greene County is mostly Northern Allegheny Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in West Kill
Every plant below cleared West Kill's own zone 5b and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West Kill?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around West Kill
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from West Kill, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near West Kill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Kill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NYSDOT BIN 1025190Brownfields · 1700 ft
- WESTKILL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1025200Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- TOWN OF LEXINGTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1025220 RTE 42 SCHOHARIE CREEKBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- NYSDOT RTE 42 WEST KILLBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- LEXINGTON COUNTRY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- GREENE COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- GOFF CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- CROSBY ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- G1351Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- ROBERT O. GOFFUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West Kill'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 Kill.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Kill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Kill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West Kill, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of West Kill. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in West Kill
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 Kill average
Your land is one point inside West Kill
Everything above resolves to West Kill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 787 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 Kill Average
West Kill Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across West Kill
- ●One soil character for all of West Kill
- ●Frost dates read at West Kill's scale: May 5 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Kill's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Kill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Kill, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Kill averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Kill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Kill average
How we know this about West Kill
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 Kill’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 Kill
When does frost risk typically end in West Kill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Kill typically lands around May 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 May 26.
When is the first frost in West Kill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Kill typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Kill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Kill sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 29, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Kill?
The federal record around West Kill shows 137 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in West Kill?
From about Sep 13 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 Oct 13 (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 Oct 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at West Kill's scale — its 5b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West Kill'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 Kill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at West Kill's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 787 acres it covers and 137 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Kill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- West Kill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 13 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 137 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Kill, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Kill's boundary and the 787 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- West Kill sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of West Killlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so West Kill's 787 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greene County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greene 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 Greene County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among West Kill's 787 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West Kill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 787 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 West Kill-wide figureread your own land →