Peach Lake, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Peach 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 Peach 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 Peach Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Peach Lake — the short answer
Peach Lake, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Peach Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peach Lake's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Peach Lake
Each reading below is measured for Peach Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPeach Lake runs about 205 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
MeasuredPeach 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 Peach Lake is in
Peach Lake sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Peach Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Putnam County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Peach Lake
Every plant below cleared Peach Lake's own zone 6b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Peach 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 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 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Peach Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Peach Lake, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Peach Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Peach Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NYSDOT BIN 1032611 & 1032612Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- DUNMORE INTERNATIONAL CORPORATIONBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- DUNMORE INTERNATIONAL CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- HUDSON MACHINE WORKS INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- TOWN OF SOUTHEAST HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- IPPI LUBRICANTSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- PUTNAM PRECISION PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- BILLY'S AUTO REPAIRToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- WE 42Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- NYCDEP-SODOM COMPLEXBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- VINNY ZADRIMAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- NYSDOT - I-84 DINGLE RIDGE RD BIN 1032621Brownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Peach 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 Peach Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Peach Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Peach Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Peach Lake, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Peach Lake. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Peach 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 Peach Lake average
Your land is one point inside Peach Lake
Everything above resolves to Peach Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Peach Lake Average
Peach Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Peach Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Peach Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Peach Lake's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peach Lake's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Peach Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peach Lake, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peach Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peach Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peach Lake average
How we know this about Peach 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 Peach 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 Peach Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Peach Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peach 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 Peach Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Peach Lake typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Peach Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peach Lake sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 17, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peach Lake?
The federal record around Peach Lake runs heavier than most — 1,124 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (499), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Peach Lake?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Peach Lake's scale — its 6b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peach 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 Peach Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Peach Lake's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,474 acres it covers and 1,124 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peach Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Peach Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 31 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,124 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Peach Lake, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Peach Lake's boundary and the 1,474 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Peach Lake sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Peach Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Peach Lake's 1,474 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Putnam County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Putnam 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 Putnam County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Peach Lake's 1,474 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Peach 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 1,474 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Peach Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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