Lake Chaffee, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Chaffee, 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 Lake Chaffee 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 Lake Chaffee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Chaffee — the short answer
Lake Chaffee, Connecticut: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 84 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 84 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 6b is Lake Chaffee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Chaffee's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Chaffee
Each reading below is measured for Lake Chaffee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Chaffee runs about 204 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
MeasuredLake Chaffee sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Lake Chaffee is in
Lake Chaffee sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Chaffee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region.
What Grows in Lake Chaffee
Every plant below cleared Lake Chaffee's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Chaffee?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Lake Chaffee
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Lake Chaffee, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Chaffee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Chaffee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OFFICES & HIGHWAY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- CT-AF 9Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- CT-AF 13Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- UNION MAINTENANCE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- CT-U 5Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- Red & Art's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- POLSTER ROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- CT-AF 12Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- FEDEX GROUND PACKAGE SYSTEM,INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- FEDEX GROUND PACKAGE SYSTEM,INC.Brownfields · 3.5 mi
- TRAVELCENTERS OF AMERICABrownfields · 3.6 mi
- TRAVEL CENTERS OF AMERICA TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Chaffee'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 Lake Chaffee.
Total Sites
304
within ~10 miles of Lake Chaffee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Chaffee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Chaffee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Chaffee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Chaffee — Superfund (7 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Chaffee
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 Lake Chaffee average
Your land is one point inside Lake Chaffee
Everything above resolves to Lake Chaffee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 84 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 Lake Chaffee Average
Lake Chaffee Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lake Chaffee
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Chaffee
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Chaffee's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Chaffee's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Chaffee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Chaffee, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Chaffee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Chaffee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Chaffee average
How we know this about Lake Chaffee
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 Lake Chaffee’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 Lake Chaffee
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Chaffee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Chaffee typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Lake Chaffee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Chaffee typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Chaffee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Chaffee sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 16, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Chaffee?
The federal record around Lake Chaffee is a meaningful one — 304 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (156), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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 Lake Chaffee?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Chaffee's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Chaffee'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 Lake Chaffee’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Chaffee's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 84 acres it covers and 304 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Chaffee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Chaffee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 30 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 304 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Chaffee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Chaffee's boundary and the 84 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Chaffee's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lake Chaffeelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Chaffee's 84 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Northeastern Connecticut County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Northeastern Connecticut County
- The growing challenges every Connecticut grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Connecticut
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Northeastern Connecticut County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Chaffee's 84 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Chaffee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 84 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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 Lake Chaffee-wide figureread your own land →
More in Connecticut
Wider growing context
What grows across ConnecticutLake Chaffee sits outside our named growing regions, so Connecticut as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides