Dutch Neck, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dutch Neck, 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 Dutch Neck 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 Dutch Neck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dutch Neck — the short answer
Dutch Neck, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 295 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 295 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 Dutch Neck's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dutch Neck's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dutch Neck
Each reading below is measured for Dutch Neck itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDutch Neck runs about 236 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
MeasuredDutch Neck 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 Dutch Neck is in
Dutch Neck sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dutch Neck's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cumberland County.
What Grows in Dutch Neck
Every plant below cleared Dutch Neck's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dutch Neck?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Dutch Neck
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Dutch Neck, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dutch Neck
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dutch Neck. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOPEWELL TWP SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- TOWNSEND OIL COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 110369-- Institutional 1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- SUNNY SLOPE FARMS OF NJUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LICALZI AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- ADAMUCCI FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 110281-- PW 13Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 111015-- Suscp17 DomNitrate · 2.1 mi
- 110073-- Sheppards 2 ObsNitrate · 2.2 mi
- WELL 13Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- OAKLAND FARMS AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- DAN D OIL CO INC (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dutch Neck'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 Dutch Neck.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dutch Neck
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dutch Neck
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dutch Neck, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 232 sites within ~10 miles of Dutch Neck. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Dutch Neck
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 Dutch Neck average
Your land is one point inside Dutch Neck
Everything above resolves to Dutch Neck as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 295 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 Dutch Neck Average
Dutch Neck Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Dutch Neck
- ●One soil character for all of Dutch Neck
- ●Frost dates read at Dutch Neck's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dutch Neck's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dutch Neck
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dutch Neck, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dutch Neck averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dutch Neck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dutch Neck average
How we know this about Dutch Neck
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 Dutch Neck’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 Dutch Neck
When does frost risk typically end in Dutch Neck?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dutch Neck typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Dutch Neck?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dutch Neck typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dutch Neck?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dutch Neck sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 2, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dutch Neck?
The federal record around Dutch Neck is a meaningful one — 474 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (232), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dutch Neck?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dutch Neck's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dutch Neck'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 Dutch Neck’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dutch Neck's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 295 acres it covers and 474 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dutch Neck's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dutch Neck's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 16 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 474 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dutch Neck, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dutch Neck's boundary and the 295 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dutch Neck's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dutch Necklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dutch Neck's 295 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cumberland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cumberland 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 Cumberland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dutch Neck's 295 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dutch Neck you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 295 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 Dutch Neck-wide figureread your own land →