Lake Como, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lake Como, 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 Como 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 Como — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Como — the short answer
Lake Como, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 161 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 161 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 Lake Como's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Como's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Como
Each reading below is measured for Lake Como itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Como runs about 245 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 Como 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 Lake Como is in
Lake Como sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Como's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monmouth County.
What Grows in Lake Como
Every plant below cleared Lake Como's own zone 7b and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Como?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Lake Como
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Lake Como, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Como
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Como. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MONMOUTH SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- SMRSA SOUTH BELMAR PSUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- BORO OF SOUTH BELMAR POLICE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- PRALL DISTRIBUTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JCP & L WALL COMPLEXBrownfields · 1700 ft
- JCP&L WALL DISTRICT OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 56109 BELMAR FUELSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BELMAR BORO PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TULLYS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JERSEY COAST TOBACCO & CANDY CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PLEASANT BROADCASTERS WADB RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SONETRONICSBrownfields · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Como'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 Como.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Como
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Como
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Como, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Como — Superfund (23 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (962 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Como
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 Como average
Your land is one point inside Lake Como
Everything above resolves to Lake Como as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 161 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 Como Average
Lake Como Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Lake Como
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Como
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Como's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Como's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Como
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Como, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Como averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Como — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Como average
How we know this about Lake Como
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 Como’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 Como
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Como?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Como typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Lake Como?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Como typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Como?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Como sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 9, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Como?
The federal record around Lake Como runs heavier than most — 1,441 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (962), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lake Como?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Como's scale — its 7b band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Como'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 Como’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Como's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 161 acres it covers and 1,441 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Como's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Como's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 23 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,441 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Como, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Como's boundary and the 161 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Como's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lake Comolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Como's 161 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monmouth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monmouth County
- The growing challenges every New Jersey grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Jersey
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Monmouth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Como's 161 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Como you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 161 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Lake Como-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyLake Como sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides