Pine Lake Park, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pine Lake Park, 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 Pine Lake Park 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 Pine Lake Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pine Lake Park — the short answer
Pine Lake Park, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7a is Pine Lake Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Lake Park's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Lake Park
Each reading below is measured for Pine Lake Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPine Lake Park runs about 206 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
MeasuredPine Lake Park sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Pine Lake Park is in
Pine Lake Park sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pine Lake Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ocean County.
What Grows in Pine Lake Park
Every plant below cleared Pine Lake Park's own zone 7a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pine Lake Park?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Nov 1 — 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 Pine Lake Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Pine Lake Park, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pine Lake Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Lake Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KLMD CORPBrownfields · 1200 ft
- 291101-- 11 Util EasementNitrate · 0.8 mi
- WAWA FOOD MARKETBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- FORMER GETTY SERVICE STATION #00523Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LIQUID LABS LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- VIP AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JACKS BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- FRITO-LAY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SITE 33709Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 291649-- Dom 2Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- NJ NATURAL GAS CO - MANCHESTERBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SOUTH BRUNSWICK ASPHALTSuperfund · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine Lake Park'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 Pine Lake Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine Lake Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Lake Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine Lake Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pine Lake Park — Nitrate (482 sites) and Superfund (23 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Pine Lake Park
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 Pine Lake Park average
Your land is one point inside Pine Lake Park
Everything above resolves to Pine Lake Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Pine Lake Park Average
Pine Lake Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pine Lake Park
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Lake Park
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Lake Park's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Lake Park's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Lake Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Lake Park, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Lake Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Lake Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Lake Park average
How we know this about Pine Lake Park
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 Pine Lake Park’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 Pine Lake Park
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Lake Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Lake Park 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 Pine Lake Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Lake Park typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine Lake Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Lake Park sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 18, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine Lake Park?
The federal record around Pine Lake Park runs heavier than most — 1,384 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (636), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Pine Lake Park?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pine Lake Park's scale — its 7a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Lake Park'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 Pine Lake Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pine Lake Park's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,588 acres it covers and 1,384 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Lake Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pine Lake Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 1 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,384 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Lake Park, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Lake Park's boundary and the 1,588 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pine Lake Park's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pine Lake Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Lake Park's 1,588 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ocean County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ocean 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 Ocean County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pine Lake Park's 1,588 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Lake Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,588 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Pine Lake Park-wide figureread your own land →