Lake Mohawk, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Mohawk, 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 Mohawk 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 Mohawk — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Mohawk — the short answer
Lake Mohawk, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Mohawk's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Mohawk's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Mohawk
Each reading below is measured for Lake Mohawk itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Mohawk runs about 195 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
MeasuredLake Mohawk 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 Mohawk is in
Lake Mohawk sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Lake Mohawk's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Sussex County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lake Mohawk
Every plant below cleared Lake Mohawk's own zone 6b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Mohawk?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Lake Mohawk
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Lake Mohawk, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Mohawk
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Mohawk. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE MOHAWK GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DS RODRIQUES CONSTRUCTION LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MOHAWK GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 370283-- Test Well 3Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 370314-- PW 5Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- SUSSEX COUNTY ANDOVER MAINTENANCE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 370578-- Autumn Hill Well 1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- PERONA ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- LAKE MOHAWK MARINA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ALPINE GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- QUICKCHEK CORPORATION #97Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SKYLANDS PEDIATRICSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Mohawk'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 Mohawk.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Mohawk
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Mohawk
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Mohawk, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Mohawk — PFAS (19 sites) and Nitrate (518 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lake Mohawk
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 Mohawk average
Your land is one point inside Lake Mohawk
Everything above resolves to Lake Mohawk as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Mohawk Average
Lake Mohawk Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lake Mohawk
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Mohawk
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Mohawk's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Mohawk's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Mohawk
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Mohawk, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Mohawk averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Mohawk — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Mohawk average
How we know this about Lake Mohawk
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 Mohawk’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 Mohawk
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Mohawk?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Mohawk typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Lake Mohawk?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Mohawk typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Mohawk?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Mohawk sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 11, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Mohawk?
The federal record around Lake Mohawk runs heavier than most — 1,264 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (531), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles 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 Mohawk?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Mohawk's scale — its 6b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Mohawk'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 Mohawk’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Mohawk's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,213 acres it covers and 1,264 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Mohawk's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Mohawk's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 25 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,264 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Mohawk, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Mohawk's boundary and the 3,213 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lake Mohawk sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lake Mohawklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Mohawk's 3,213 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sussex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sussex 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 Sussex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Mohawk's 3,213 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Mohawk you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,213 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Mohawk-wide figureread your own land →