New York City metro spans USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The warmest, longest-season corner of New York State: every one of the five boroughs sits in USDA zone 7b with roughly 254-258 frost-free days (per the PHZM zone join and NOAA frost normals in our county data) — the urban heat island stretching the season well past the cooler zones inland and upstate. But the real difference isn't the calendar, it's the ground: growing here means rooftops, balcony containers, small raised beds, and community-garden plots on reclaimed lots — not open field. That flips the constraints a Brooklyn or Queens grower actually faces (reflected heat, rooftop wind, deep shade between buildings, and legacy-lot soil worth testing before you plant) toward what thrives in containers and tight urban beds, rather than the acreage advice the rest of the state gets. These conditions suit kale, tomato, garlic, and lilac — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
New York City metro spans New York.
Your yard isn't all of New York City metro.
New York City metro spans USDA zones 7b, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 New York City metro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New York City metro — the short answer
New York City metro: USDA zones 7b, 254–258 frost-free days, in New York.
- USDA zones
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 254–258 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Counties
- 5
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in New York City metro
Plants matched to New York City metro's USDA zones 7b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of New York City metro
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets New York City metro’s USDA zones 7b — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across New York City metro
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across five member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Inceptisols, at 58% of mapped acres, followed by Entisols (33%), Histosols (5%) and Alfisols (5%). Five soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Greenbelt, Nagunt, and Flatbush.
14% of those acres are well drained, and another 4% subaqueous, 2% very poorly drained. Topsoil pH runs 4.6–7.9 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 1% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
4.6–7.9
Hydric soils
24%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Kings County holds the most wetland ground here, at 42% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in New York City metro
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across New York City metro. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records14% of the mapped acres across New York City metro are well drained — ground that drains quickly. That is area-weighted across all five of its mapped counties.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across New York City metro runs pH 4.6–7.9 — acidic in four of its five counties.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
From county recordsAbout 24% of the ground across New York City metro is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil. Kings County carries the most, at 42%.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across New York City metro — and how to grow with it.
Across New York City metro's 5 counties the federal record holds 19,502 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks (11,075), Brownfields (7,392) and Nitrate (686). The heaviest single county is Queens County, with 6,452.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to New York City metro to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 5 counties in New York City metro
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside New York City metro
Everything above resolves to New York City metro as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 7b. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs New York City metro Average
New York City metro Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across New York City metro
- ●One soil character for all of New York City metro
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New York City metro's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in New York City metro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New York City metro — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New York City metro averages can't show:
We read public map data around New York City metro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not New York City metro average
How we know this about New York City metro
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about New York City metro
What hardiness zone is New York City metro?
New York City metro spans USDA hardiness zones 7b, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in New York City metro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New York City metro's counties mostly run 256 to 258 frost-free days, median 256 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 5 member counties). That 2-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 5 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in New York City metro?
Across New York City metro, the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Mar 20 and Mar 20 (median Mar 20), and their first fall freeze between Dec 1 and Dec 2. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Apr 10, and elevation decides which end of a 0-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in New York City metro?
New York City metro's conditions suit plants such as Kale, Tomato, Garlic, Lilac, Apple, Grape. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is New York City metro defined?
New York City metro is defined here as a curated cluster of 5 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does New York City metro cover?
New York City metro spans New York. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Appalachia, Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley, Champlain Valley, Mohawk Valley, and The Adirondacks share at least one state with New York City metro. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at New York City metro’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New York City metro's own scale — the zone 7b band across its footprint, a median 256-day season across its 5 counties and 19,502 documented federal contamination records across its 5 counties, 6,452 of them in Queens County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 7b aggregated across all 5 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 5 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 5 counties run 256 to 258 frost-free days, median 256NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 19,502 documented federal contamination records across its 5 counties, 6,452 of them in Queens County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 58% Inceptisols, topsoil pH 4.6–7.9, area-weighted across its 5 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 7bfrom New York
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 2-day range your ground sits at — 256 days at one extreme, 258 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore New York City metro
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across New York
The vast eastern mountain region of steep hollows, thin acidic soils, and short upland seasons — apples, brambles, ramps, and forest crops on hard-won ground. (Union of the core Appalachian ecoregions.)
Deep glacial lakes moderate New York's premier cool-climate wine region, where lake-effect slopes favour grapes, apples, and other tree fruit.
The Hudson River corridor's fertile valley floors and benched hillsides have grown orchards, vineyards, and market vegetables since the colonial era.
The lake-tempered lowland on both shores of Lake Champlain — clay and silt plains that make the warmest, driest, and most productive farm ground in Vermont, with apple and cold-climate wine country on the New York shore.
New York's east–west Mohawk River corridor, where cold 4a highland gives way to milder 5b valley-floor farmland across a roughly 168-day median frost-free season (last frost near the end of April, first frost around mid-October).
New York's vast northern mountain wilderness — very cold winters, thin acidic soils, and the state's shortest growing seasons.