Lake Placid, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Placid, 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 Lake Placid 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 Lake Placid — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Placid — the short answer
Lake Placid, New York: USDA zone 4a, about 137 days between hard freezes, across 871 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~137
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 871 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 4a is Lake Placid's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Placid's 137-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Placid
Each reading below is measured for Lake Placid itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Placid runs about 137 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLake Placid sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Lake Placid is in
Lake Placid sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Lake Placid's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Lake Placid
Every plant below cleared Lake Placid's own zone 4a and its 137-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Placid?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
Documented around Lake Placid
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lake Placid checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 37 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Placid
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Placid. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLYMPIC CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CROWNE PLAZA RESORT & GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- OLYMPIC CENTERToxics Release Inventory · 550 ft
- NORTH COUNTRY SCHOOL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ADIRONDACK INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MARIA RENATAUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- JOHN BROWN FARM HISTORIC SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- LAKE PLACID CENT SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ADIRONDACK COMMUNITY CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ST AGNES CHURCH AND SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HIGH PEAKS CYCLERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- GOLDEN ARROWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Placid'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 Lake Placid.
Total Sites
223
within ~10 miles of Lake Placid
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Placid
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Placid
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Placid, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 165 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Placid. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Placid
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 Lake Placid average
Your land is one point inside Lake Placid
Everything above resolves to Lake Placid as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 871 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 Lake Placid Average
Lake Placid Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Lake Placid
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Placid
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Placid's scale: May 17 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Placid's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Placid
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Placid, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Placid averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Placid — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Placid average
How we know this about Lake Placid
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 Lake Placid’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 Lake Placid
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Placid?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Placid typically lands around May 17, 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 Jun 7.
When is the first frost in Lake Placid?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Placid typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 137 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Placid?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Placid sees about 137 frost-free days — roughly May 17 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 7 to Sep 17, about 102 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Placid?
The federal record around Lake Placid is a meaningful one — 223 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (165), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Lake Placid?
With about 137 frost-free days between hard freezes, Lake Placid rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 165 to 193 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 17 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Lake Placid's scale — its 4a band and its 137-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Placid'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 Lake Placid’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Placid's own scale — its own ~137-day season between 28°F freezes, the 871 acres it covers and 223 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Placid's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Placid's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 17 and Oct 1 and the ~137-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 223 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Placid, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Placid's boundary and the 871 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~137-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Placid's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lake Placid checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Placid's 871 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Essex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Essex County
- The growing challenges every New York grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New York
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Essex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Placid's 871 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Placid you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 871 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lake Placid-wide figureread your own land →