Brookside, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brookside, 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 Brookside 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 Brookside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brookside — the short answer
Brookside, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7a is Brookside's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brookside's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brookside
Each reading below is measured for Brookside itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrookside runs about 199 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
MeasuredBrookside sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Brookside is in
Brookside sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Brookside's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morris County.
What Grows in Brookside
Every plant below cleared Brookside's own zone 7a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brookside?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Brookside
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Brookside, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brookside
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brookside. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MENDHAM TWPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 271850-- SUS 0777 DomNitrate · 2400 ft
- MENDHAM TWP ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 271318-- Tw 14 Tingley RdNitrate · 0.7 mi
- E TRUST Y SOLIMINE C/O EMILY SOLIMINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- RANDOLPH TWP PUBLIC WORKS DEPTPFAS · 1.1 mi
- MENDHAM EXXON NJ 0121Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 271861-- SUS 0824 DomNitrate · 1.4 mi
- MENDHAM FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- NEW MENDHAM FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 271194-- IrrNitrate · 1.5 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #11204Brownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brookside'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 Brookside.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brookside
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brookside
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brookside, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Brookside — Superfund (46 sites) and PFAS (22 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Brookside
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 Brookside average
Your land is one point inside Brookside
Everything above resolves to Brookside as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Brookside Average
Brookside Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Brookside
- ●One soil character for all of Brookside
- ●Frost dates read at Brookside's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brookside's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brookside
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brookside, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brookside averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brookside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brookside average
How we know this about Brookside
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 Brookside’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 Brookside
When does frost risk typically end in Brookside?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brookside typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Brookside?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brookside typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brookside?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brookside sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 13, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brookside?
The federal record around Brookside runs heavier than most — 2,195 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,111), 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 Brookside?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brookside's scale — its 7a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brookside'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 Brookside’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brookside's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,538 acres it covers and 2,195 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brookside's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brookside's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 27 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,195 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brookside, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brookside's boundary and the 1,538 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brookside's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brooksidelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brookside's 1,538 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morris County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morris 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 Morris County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brookside's 1,538 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brookside you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,538 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 Brookside-wide figureread your own land →