Lake Telemark, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Telemark, 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 Telemark 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 Telemark — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Telemark — the short answer
Lake Telemark, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Telemark's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Telemark's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Telemark
Each reading below is measured for Lake Telemark itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Telemark runs about 193 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 Telemark 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 Telemark is in
Lake Telemark sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Lake Telemark's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morris County.
What Grows in Lake Telemark
Every plant below cleared Lake Telemark's own zone 6b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Telemark?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Telemark
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Lake Telemark, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Telemark
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Telemark. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TELEMARK AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- COUNTRYSIDE INTERNATL TRUCK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 271852-- SUS 0402 DomNitrate · 1700 ft
- KATHARINE D MALONE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ROCKAWAY TWP MUNICIPAL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ROCKAWAY BORO WATER DEPTPFAS · 0.6 mi
- ROCKAWAY TWP WATER DEPTPFAS · 0.6 mi
- RADIATION TECHNOLOGY, INC.Superfund · 0.9 mi
- RTI INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PICATINNY AASFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- COUNTRYSIDE DEVELOPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HIBERNIA AUTO RESTORATIONSBrownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Telemark'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 Telemark.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Telemark
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Telemark
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Telemark, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Telemark — Superfund (39 sites) and PFAS (17 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Telemark
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 Telemark average
Your land is one point inside Lake Telemark
Everything above resolves to Lake Telemark as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Telemark Average
Lake Telemark Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lake Telemark
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Telemark
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Telemark's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Telemark's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Telemark
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Telemark, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Telemark averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Telemark — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Telemark average
How we know this about Lake Telemark
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 Telemark’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 Telemark
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Telemark?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Telemark typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Lake Telemark?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Telemark typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Telemark?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Telemark sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 10, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Telemark?
The federal record around Lake Telemark runs heavier than most — 1,837 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (900), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Telemark?
From about Sep 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 Oct 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Telemark's scale — its 6b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Telemark'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 Telemark’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Telemark's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,361 acres it covers and 1,837 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Telemark's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Telemark's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 24 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,837 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Telemark, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Telemark's boundary and the 1,361 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Telemark's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lake Telemarklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Telemark's 1,361 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morris County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morris 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 Morris County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Telemark's 1,361 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Telemark you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,361 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Telemark-wide figureread your own land →