Pines Lake, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pines 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 Pines 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 Pines Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pines Lake — the short answer
Pines Lake, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 859 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 859 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 Pines Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pines Lake's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pines Lake
Each reading below is measured for Pines Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPines Lake runs about 215 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
MeasuredPines Lake 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 Pines Lake is in
Pines Lake sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pines Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Passaic County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pines Lake
Every plant below cleared Pines Lake's own zone 7a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pines Lake?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Pines Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Pines Lake, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pines Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pines Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WAYNE TWP PLPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- OAK RIDGE MANOR NURSING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WAYNE TWP TPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FEDEX FREIGHT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MOUNTAIN VIEW MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- AMERICAN CYANAMID COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- POMPTON LAKES LIBERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 2455 HAMBURG TURNPIKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CITROS AUTO BODY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CITRO'S AUTO BODY (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #0715Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- HIGGINS PERAGALLOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pines 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 Pines Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pines Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pines Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pines Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pines Lake — Superfund (75 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (203 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Pines 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 Pines Lake average
Your land is one point inside Pines Lake
Everything above resolves to Pines Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 859 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 Pines Lake Average
Pines Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pines Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Pines Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Pines Lake's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pines Lake's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pines Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pines Lake, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pines Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pines Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pines Lake average
How we know this about Pines 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 Pines 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 Pines Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Pines Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pines Lake typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Pines Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pines Lake typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pines Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pines Lake sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 20, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pines Lake?
The federal record around Pines Lake runs heavier than most — 3,081 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,821), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Pines Lake?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pines Lake's scale — its 7a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pines 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 Pines Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pines Lake's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 859 acres it covers and 3,081 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pines Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pines Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 3 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,081 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pines Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pines Lake's boundary and the 859 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pines Lake sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pines Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pines Lake's 859 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Passaic County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Passaic 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 Passaic County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pines Lake's 859 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pines 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 859 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Pines Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyPines Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides