White Meadow Lake, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in White Meadow 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 White Meadow 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 White Meadow Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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White Meadow Lake — the short answer
White Meadow Lake, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- 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 White Meadow Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Meadow Lake's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Meadow Lake
Each reading below is measured for White Meadow Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhite Meadow Lake runs about 202 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
MeasuredWhite Meadow 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 White Meadow Lake is in
White Meadow Lake sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at White Meadow Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morris County.
What Grows in White Meadow Lake
Every plant below cleared White Meadow Lake's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in White Meadow 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 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 Oct 28 — 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 White Meadow Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from White Meadow Lake, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near White Meadow Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of White Meadow Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- W M L AUTO SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- STRAUSS REALTY CO (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ROCKAWAY TOWNSHIP LOW ERIE WATER TANKBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- GASFLO PRODUCTS, INC.Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- AKI INC DBA ARCADE MARKETINGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- PHOENIX COLOR CORP.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- STONY BROOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FEDEX FREIGHT RNJBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- YELLOW FREIGHT SYSTEM INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- POLYFIL CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LEVOLOR CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ROCKAWAY ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from White Meadow 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 White Meadow Lake.
Total Sites
2,100
within ~10 miles of White Meadow Lake
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
44 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of White Meadow Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of White Meadow Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around White Meadow Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of White Meadow Lake — Superfund (44 sites) and PFAS (20 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 White Meadow 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 White Meadow Lake average
Your land is one point inside White Meadow Lake
Everything above resolves to White Meadow 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 White Meadow Lake Average
White Meadow Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across White Meadow Lake
- ●One soil character for all of White Meadow Lake
- ●Frost dates read at White Meadow Lake's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Meadow Lake's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Meadow Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Meadow Lake, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Meadow Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Meadow Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Meadow Lake average
How we know this about White Meadow 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 White Meadow 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 White Meadow Lake
When does frost risk typically end in White Meadow Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Meadow Lake 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 White Meadow Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Meadow Lake typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Meadow Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Meadow Lake sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 14, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Meadow Lake?
The federal record around White Meadow Lake runs heavier than most — 2,100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,022), 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 White Meadow Lake?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at White Meadow Lake's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Meadow 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 White Meadow Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at White Meadow Lake's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,307 acres it covers and 2,100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Meadow Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- White Meadow Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 28 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near White Meadow Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- White Meadow Lake's boundary and the 2,307 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at White Meadow Lake's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of White Meadow Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so White Meadow Lake's 2,307 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 White Meadow Lake's 2,307 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Meadow 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 2,307 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 White Meadow Lake-wide figureread your own land →