Blackwood, 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.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Blackwood, 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 Blackwood 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 Blackwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blackwood — the short answer
Blackwood, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 781 acres of town.
- 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)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 781 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 Blackwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blackwood's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blackwood
Each reading below is measured for Blackwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlackwood runs about 243 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
MeasuredBlackwood 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 Blackwood is in
Blackwood sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blackwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Camden County.
What Grows in Blackwood
Every plant below cleared Blackwood's own zone 7b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blackwood?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 Nov 19 — 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 Blackwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Blackwood, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Blackwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blackwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 070249-- Blackwod div 3Nitrate · 550 ft
- S PAUL CITGO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- AJWMS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- VACANT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CHAMPION AUTO GENERATOR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CHAMPION AUTO GENERATOR SERVICESToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- NEW DEAL LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- GLOUCESTER TWP DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 070253-- Blackwod div 2Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- PENNCO TECHBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LUKOIL #57734Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BLACKWOOD BEST GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blackwood'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 Blackwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blackwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blackwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blackwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Blackwood — Superfund (66 sites) and Nitrate (1,002 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Blackwood
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 Blackwood average
Your land is one point inside Blackwood
Everything above resolves to Blackwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 781 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 Blackwood Average
Blackwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Blackwood
- ●One soil character for all of Blackwood
- ●Frost dates read at Blackwood's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blackwood's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blackwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blackwood, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blackwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blackwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blackwood average
How we know this about Blackwood
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 Blackwood’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 Blackwood
When does frost risk typically end in Blackwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blackwood 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 Blackwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blackwood typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blackwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blackwood sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 5, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blackwood?
The federal record around Blackwood runs heavier than most — 3,244 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,533), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Blackwood?
From about Oct 20 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 Nov 19 (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 Nov 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blackwood's scale — its 7b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blackwood'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 Blackwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Blackwood's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 781 acres it covers and 3,244 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blackwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blackwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 19 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,244 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blackwood, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blackwood's boundary and the 781 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blackwood's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Blackwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blackwood's 781 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Camden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Camden 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 Camden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blackwood's 781 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blackwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 781 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Blackwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyBlackwood sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides