Upper Greenwood Lake, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Upper Greenwood 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 Upper Greenwood 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 Upper Greenwood Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Upper Greenwood Lake — the short answer
Upper Greenwood Lake, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- 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 6b is Upper Greenwood Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Upper Greenwood Lake's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Upper Greenwood Lake
Each reading below is measured for Upper Greenwood Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUpper Greenwood Lake runs about 208 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
MeasuredUpper Greenwood Lake 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 Upper Greenwood Lake is in
Upper Greenwood Lake sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Upper Greenwood Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Passaic County.
What Grows in Upper Greenwood Lake
Every plant below cleared Upper Greenwood Lake's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Upper Greenwood Lake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Upper Greenwood Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Upper Greenwood Lake, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Upper Greenwood Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Upper Greenwood Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BURROW ROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 310170-- Institutional 5Nitrate · 2500 ft
- MOUNTAIN JUG INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WEST MILFORD DPW BANKER ROAD DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WAWAYANDA STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- S B PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- UAHC KUTZ CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- GREENWOOD LAKE BOAT BASIN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MOOSEHEAD MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- SPORTSMANS MARINA LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- SULLYS MARINE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 310145-- SUS 0054 DomNitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Upper Greenwood 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 Upper Greenwood Lake.
Total Sites
394
within ~10 miles of Upper Greenwood Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Upper Greenwood Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Upper Greenwood Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Upper Greenwood Lake, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Upper Greenwood Lake. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Upper Greenwood 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 Upper Greenwood Lake average
Your land is one point inside Upper Greenwood Lake
Everything above resolves to Upper Greenwood Lake 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 Upper Greenwood Lake Average
Upper Greenwood Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Upper Greenwood Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Upper Greenwood Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Upper Greenwood Lake's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Upper Greenwood Lake's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Upper Greenwood Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Upper Greenwood Lake, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Upper Greenwood Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Upper Greenwood Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Upper Greenwood Lake average
How we know this about Upper Greenwood 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 Upper Greenwood 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 Upper Greenwood Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Upper Greenwood Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Upper Greenwood Lake typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Upper Greenwood Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Upper Greenwood Lake typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Upper Greenwood Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Upper Greenwood Lake sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 19, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Upper Greenwood Lake?
The federal record around Upper Greenwood Lake is a meaningful one — 394 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (225), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Upper Greenwood Lake?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Upper Greenwood Lake's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Upper Greenwood 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 Upper Greenwood Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Upper Greenwood Lake's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,753 acres it covers and 394 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Upper Greenwood Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Upper Greenwood Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 2 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 394 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Upper Greenwood Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Upper Greenwood Lake's boundary and the 1,753 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Upper Greenwood Lake's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Upper Greenwood Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Upper Greenwood Lake's 1,753 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 Upper Greenwood Lake's 1,753 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Upper Greenwood 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 1,753 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Upper Greenwood Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyUpper Greenwood Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides