Star Lake, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Star 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 Star 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 Star Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Star Lake — the short answer
Star Lake, New York: USDA zone 4a, about 158 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~158
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Star Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Star Lake's 158-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Star Lake
Each reading below is measured for Star Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStar Lake runs about 158 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredStar Lake 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 Star Lake is in
Star Lake sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Star Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: St. Lawrence County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Star Lake
Every plant below cleared Star Lake's own zone 4a and its 158-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Star 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 Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Star Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Star Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 48 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Star Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Star Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLIFTON-FINE CSDBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CLIFTON-FINE CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CIRCLE K #7625Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- NICE N EASY #7625Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CLIFTON-FINE HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FORMER ALDRICH GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WOODHAVEN WATER DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SCHULER PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SMALL OIL CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HOUGHTON COLLEGE - STAR LAKE CAMPUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FINE(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- FINE TOWN OFBrownfields · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Star 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 Star Lake.
Total Sites
39
within ~10 miles of Star Lake
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Star Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Star Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Star 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 Star Lake average
Your land is one point inside Star Lake
Everything above resolves to Star Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Star Lake Average
Star Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Star Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Star Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Star Lake's scale: May 5 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Star Lake's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Star Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Star Lake, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Star Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Star Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Star Lake average
How we know this about Star 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 Star 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 Star Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Star Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Star Lake typically lands around May 5, 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 May 26.
When is the first frost in Star Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Star Lake typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 158 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Star Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Star Lake sees about 158 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 26, about 123 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Star Lake?
The federal record around Star Lake is light — 39 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (22), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Star Lake?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Star Lake's scale — its 4a band and its 158-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Star 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 Star Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Star Lake's own scale — its own ~158-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,776 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Star Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Star Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 10 and the ~158-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Star Lake, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Star Lake's boundary and the 2,776 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~158-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Star Lake sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Star Lake 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 Star Lake's 2,776 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Lawrence 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 St. Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Star Lake's 2,776 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Star 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 2,776 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Star Lake-wide figureread your own land →