Cresskill, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cresskill, 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 Cresskill 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 Cresskill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cresskill — the short answer
Cresskill, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- 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 7b is Cresskill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cresskill's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cresskill
Each reading below is measured for Cresskill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCresskill runs about 245 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
MeasuredCresskill 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 Cresskill is in
Cresskill sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cresskill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bergen County.
What Grows in Cresskill
Every plant below cleared Cresskill's own zone 7b and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cresskill?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Cresskill
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Cresskill, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cresskill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cresskill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOG CABIN SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CRESSKILL BORO HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DUNROVEN HEALTH CARE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- KINGS 3616Brownfields · 750 ft
- NORTH JERSEY SUBURBANITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #4644Brownfields · 1200 ft
- CABLEVISION OF NEW JERSEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JOE DIRESE & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PIERMONT - MADISON CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DELTA FUEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HOKE INCSuperfund · 1300 ft
- HOKE INCToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cresskill'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 Cresskill.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cresskill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cresskill
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Cresskill
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 Cresskill average
Your land is one point inside Cresskill
Everything above resolves to Cresskill 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 Cresskill Average
Cresskill Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Cresskill
- ●One soil character for all of Cresskill
- ●Frost dates read at Cresskill's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cresskill's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cresskill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cresskill, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cresskill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cresskill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cresskill average
How we know this about Cresskill
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 Cresskill’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 Cresskill
When does frost risk typically end in Cresskill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cresskill typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Cresskill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cresskill typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cresskill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cresskill sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 10, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cresskill?
The federal record around Cresskill runs heavier than most — 7,273 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (4,038), 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 Cresskill?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cresskill's scale — its 7b band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cresskill'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 Cresskill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cresskill's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,322 acres it covers and 7,273 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cresskill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cresskill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 24 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7,273 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cresskill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cresskill's boundary and the 1,322 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cresskill's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cresskilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cresskill's 1,322 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bergen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bergen 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 Bergen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cresskill's 1,322 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cresskill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,322 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 Cresskill-wide figureread your own land →