Cologne, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cologne, 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 Cologne 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 Cologne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cologne — the short answer
Cologne, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Cologne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cologne's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cologne
Each reading below is measured for Cologne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCologne runs about 222 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
MeasuredCologne 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 Cologne is in
Cologne sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cologne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Atlantic County.
What Grows in Cologne
Every plant below cleared Cologne's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cologne?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Cologne
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Cologne, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cologne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cologne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SJTA BRIDGE #16ABrownfields · 350 ft
- POMONA MAINTENANCE YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 010992-- Dom-1988Nitrate · 2500 ft
- LENOX CHINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- GERMANIA HELIPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- 010185-- Ind 2Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- PHA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 010979-- DomNitrate · 0.6 mi
- 010978-- DomNitrate · 0.6 mi
- GEORGE H HOENES JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 010980-- DomNitrate · 0.6 mi
- DELTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cologne'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 Cologne.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cologne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cologne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cologne, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cologne — Superfund (19 sites) and Nitrate (218 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Cologne
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 Cologne average
Your land is one point inside Cologne
Everything above resolves to Cologne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Cologne Average
Cologne Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cologne
- ●One soil character for all of Cologne
- ●Frost dates read at Cologne's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cologne's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cologne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cologne, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cologne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cologne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cologne average
How we know this about Cologne
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 Cologne’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 Cologne
When does frost risk typically end in Cologne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cologne typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Cologne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cologne typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cologne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cologne sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 25, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cologne?
The federal record around Cologne runs heavier than most — 801 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (435), the nearest Brownfields 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 Cologne?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cologne's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cologne'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 Cologne’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cologne's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,174 acres it covers and 801 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cologne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cologne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 8 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 801 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cologne, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cologne's boundary and the 1,174 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cologne's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Colognelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cologne's 1,174 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Atlantic County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Atlantic 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 Atlantic County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cologne's 1,174 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cologne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,174 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Cologne-wide figureread your own land →
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