Beech Mountain Lakes, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, 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 Beech Mountain Lakes, 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 Beech Mountain Lakes 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 Beech Mountain Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beech Mountain Lakes — the short answer
Beech Mountain Lakes, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 994 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 994 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 Beech Mountain Lakes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beech Mountain Lakes's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beech Mountain Lakes
Each reading below is measured for Beech Mountain Lakes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeech Mountain Lakes runs about 192 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
MeasuredBeech Mountain Lakes 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 Beech Mountain Lakes is in
Beech Mountain Lakes sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beech Mountain Lakes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Luzerne County.
What Grows in Beech Mountain Lakes
Every plant below cleared Beech Mountain Lakes's own zone 6b and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beech Mountain Lakes?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Beech Mountain Lakes
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Beech Mountain Lakes, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Beech Mountain Lakes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beech Mountain Lakes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JA & WA HESS INC SVC GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- JEET ONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HIGHWAY EQUIP & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SHASTRIKRUPA STORE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- EDGEWOOD IN THE PINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- NHD INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- GOLDYS MINI MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ENG DIST 4 0 SUN VALLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CUSATS SUNOCO SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MARTINI INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LU 687Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- DRUMS FUEL STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beech Mountain Lakes'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 Beech Mountain Lakes.
Total Sites
509
within ~10 miles of Beech Mountain Lakes
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beech Mountain Lakes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beech Mountain Lakes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beech Mountain Lakes, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Beech Mountain Lakes — Toxics Release Inventory (42 sites) and Superfund (8 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Beech Mountain Lakes
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 Beech Mountain Lakes average
Your land is one point inside Beech Mountain Lakes
Everything above resolves to Beech Mountain Lakes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 994 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 Beech Mountain Lakes Average
Beech Mountain Lakes Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Beech Mountain Lakes
- ●One soil character for all of Beech Mountain Lakes
- ●Frost dates read at Beech Mountain Lakes's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beech Mountain Lakes's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beech Mountain Lakes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beech Mountain Lakes, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beech Mountain Lakes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beech Mountain Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beech Mountain Lakes average
How we know this about Beech Mountain Lakes
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 Beech Mountain Lakes’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 Beech Mountain Lakes
When does frost risk typically end in Beech Mountain Lakes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beech Mountain Lakes typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Beech Mountain Lakes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beech Mountain Lakes typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beech Mountain Lakes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beech Mountain Lakes sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 10, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beech Mountain Lakes?
The federal record around Beech Mountain Lakes runs heavier than most — 509 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (274), 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 Beech Mountain Lakes?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Beech Mountain Lakes's scale — its 6b band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beech Mountain Lakes'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 Beech Mountain Lakes’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Beech Mountain Lakes's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 994 acres it covers and 509 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beech Mountain Lakes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beech Mountain Lakes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 24 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 509 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beech Mountain Lakes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beech Mountain Lakes's boundary and the 994 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beech Mountain Lakes's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Beech Mountain Lakeslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beech Mountain Lakes's 994 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Luzerne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Luzerne County
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Luzerne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beech Mountain Lakes's 994 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beech Mountain Lakes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 994 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 Beech Mountain Lakes-wide figureread your own land →
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