Bayonne, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bayonne, 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 Bayonne 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 Bayonne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bayonne — the short answer
Bayonne, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 7b is Bayonne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bayonne's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bayonne
Each reading below is measured for Bayonne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBayonne runs about 255 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
MeasuredBayonne sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Bayonne is in
Bayonne sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bayonne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hudson County.
What Grows in Bayonne
Every plant below cleared Bayonne's own zone 7b and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bayonne?
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 Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Bayonne
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Bayonne, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bayonne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bayonne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITYOF BAYONNEPFAS · 0 ft
- 109 E 24TH STREETUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- COMMERCIAL PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LOWE'S OF BAYONNE, NJ #2676Brownfields · 900 ft
- BAYONNE DRY DOCK & REPAIR CO INC @ MILITARY OCEAN TERMINAL DOCK YARDBrownfields · 900 ft
- BAYONNE BRIDGEBrownfields · 900 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #5867Brownfields · 950 ft
- STRATFORD IND INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- AMERADA HESS CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BAYONNE ENERGY CENTERToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- BAYONNE ENERGY CENTERBrownfields · 1100 ft
- FORMER CORRUGATED CARDBOARDBrownfields · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bayonne'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 Bayonne.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bayonne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bayonne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bayonne, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 179 sites within ~10 miles of Bayonne. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Bayonne
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 Bayonne average
Your land is one point inside Bayonne
Everything above resolves to Bayonne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 city 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 Bayonne Average
Bayonne Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Bayonne
- ●One soil character for all of Bayonne
- ●Frost dates read at Bayonne's scale: Mar 21 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bayonne's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bayonne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bayonne, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bayonne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bayonne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bayonne average
How we know this about Bayonne
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bayonne’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Bayonne
When does frost risk typically end in Bayonne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bayonne typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Bayonne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bayonne typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bayonne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bayonne sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 17, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bayonne?
The federal record around Bayonne runs heavier than most — 13,039 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (7,486), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bayonne?
From about Nov 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 Dec 1 (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 Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bayonne's scale — its 7b band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bayonne'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 Bayonne’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bayonne's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,725 acres it covers and 13,039 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bayonne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bayonne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Dec 1 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 13,039 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bayonne, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bayonne's boundary and the 3,725 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bayonne's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bayonnelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bayonne's 3,725 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hudson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hudson 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 Hudson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bayonne's 3,725 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bayonne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,725 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Bayonne-wide figureread your own land →