Clayton, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, 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 Clayton, 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 Clayton 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 Clayton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Clayton — the short answer
Clayton, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Clayton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clayton's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clayton
Each reading below is measured for Clayton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClayton runs about 233 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
MeasuredClayton 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 Clayton is in
Clayton sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clayton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gloucester County.
What Grows in Clayton
Every plant below cleared Clayton's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clayton?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Clayton
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Clayton, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Clayton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clayton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- REPUBLIC ENVIRONMENTAL REYCLING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- REPUBLIC ENVIRONMENTAL RECYCLING INC @ ALMO IND PKBrownfields · 400 ft
- OIL RECOVERY CO INCSuperfund · 850 ft
- OIL RECOVERY CO INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- SAFETY KLEEN CORP @ ALMO IND PKBrownfields · 850 ft
- ACV ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- SAFETY KLEEN CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PETROLEUM RECYCLING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GERALD A BARRETT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CLAYTON WATER DEPARTMENT, NJPFAS · 0.5 mi
- CLAYTON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 151215-- Und03Nitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clayton'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 Clayton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clayton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clayton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clayton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Clayton — Nitrate (700 sites) and Superfund (28 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Clayton
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 Clayton average
Your land is one point inside Clayton
Everything above resolves to Clayton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Clayton Average
Clayton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Clayton
- ●One soil character for all of Clayton
- ●Frost dates read at Clayton's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clayton's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clayton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clayton, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clayton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clayton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clayton average
How we know this about Clayton
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 Clayton’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 Clayton
When does frost risk typically end in Clayton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clayton typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Clayton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clayton typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clayton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clayton sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 31, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clayton?
The federal record around Clayton runs heavier than most — 1,401 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (700), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Clayton?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clayton's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clayton'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 Clayton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Clayton's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,528 acres it covers and 1,401 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clayton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clayton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 14 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,401 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clayton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clayton's boundary and the 4,528 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clayton's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Claytonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clayton's 4,528 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gloucester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gloucester 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 Gloucester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clayton's 4,528 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clayton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,528 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Clayton-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyClayton sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides