Laurel Lake, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Laurel Lake, 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 Laurel Lake 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 Laurel Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Laurel Lake — the short answer
Laurel Lake, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- 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 7b is Laurel Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Laurel Lake's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Laurel Lake
Each reading below is measured for Laurel Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLaurel Lake runs about 222 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
MeasuredLaurel Lake 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 Laurel Lake is in
Laurel Lake sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Laurel Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cumberland County.
What Grows in Laurel Lake
Every plant below cleared Laurel Lake's own zone 7b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Laurel Lake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Laurel Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Laurel Lake, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Laurel Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Laurel Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EDDIES CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 111007-- Suscp14 DomNitrate · 1.0 mi
- 111444-- Suscp14 ReplNitrate · 1.4 mi
- BEVANS WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ACKLEY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- FRANZWA TRAILER SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PAUL J CHELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- NEW JERSEY SILICA SAND COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- DAGASTINES TRANSFER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- DAGASTINES FRIENDLY SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- MILLVILLE WATER DEPARTMENTPFAS · 2.8 mi
- PORT NORRIS STATE POLICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Laurel Lake'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 Laurel Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Laurel Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Laurel Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Laurel Lake, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Laurel Lake. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Laurel Lake
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 Laurel Lake average
Your land is one point inside Laurel Lake
Everything above resolves to Laurel Lake 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 Laurel Lake Average
Laurel Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Laurel Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Laurel Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Laurel Lake's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Laurel Lake's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Laurel Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Laurel Lake, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Laurel Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Laurel Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Laurel Lake average
How we know this about Laurel Lake
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 Laurel Lake’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 Laurel Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Laurel Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Laurel Lake typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Laurel Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Laurel Lake typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Laurel Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Laurel Lake sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 30, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Laurel Lake?
The federal record around Laurel Lake is a meaningful one — 381 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (211), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Laurel Lake?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Laurel Lake's scale — its 7b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Laurel Lake'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 Laurel Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Laurel Lake's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,112 acres it covers and 381 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Laurel Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Laurel Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 13 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 381 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Laurel Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Laurel Lake's boundary and the 1,112 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Laurel Lake's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Laurel Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Laurel Lake's 1,112 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cumberland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cumberland 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 Cumberland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Laurel Lake's 1,112 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Laurel Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,112 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Laurel Lake-wide figureread your own land →