Echelon, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Echelon, 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 Echelon 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 Echelon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Echelon — the short answer
Echelon, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- 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 7b is Echelon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Echelon's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Echelon
Each reading below is measured for Echelon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEchelon runs about 240 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
MeasuredEchelon 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 Echelon is in
Echelon sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Echelon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Camden County.
What Grows in Echelon
Every plant below cleared Echelon's own zone 7b and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Echelon?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Echelon
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Echelon, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Echelon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Echelon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIGNA INSURANCE INAUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- A F L QUALITY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CAMDEN CNTY LIBRARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LAUREL LAKE ESTATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #16497Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- TARGET STORE T1133Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SHELL SERVICE STATION 138392Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FIRESTONE STORE 14YE 017876Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JC PENNEY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KIRKWOOD FIRE COMPANY NO IUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ALL TUNE & LUBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Echelon'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 Echelon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Echelon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Echelon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Echelon, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 70 sites within ~10 miles of Echelon. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Echelon
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 Echelon average
Your land is one point inside Echelon
Everything above resolves to Echelon 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 Echelon Average
Echelon Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Echelon
- ●One soil character for all of Echelon
- ●Frost dates read at Echelon's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Echelon's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Echelon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Echelon, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Echelon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Echelon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Echelon average
How we know this about Echelon
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 Echelon’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 Echelon
When does frost risk typically end in Echelon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Echelon typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Echelon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Echelon typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Echelon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Echelon sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 4, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Echelon?
The federal record around Echelon runs heavier than most — 3,429 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,793), 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 Echelon?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Echelon's scale — its 7b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Echelon'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 Echelon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Echelon's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,790 acres it covers and 3,429 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Echelon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Echelon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 18 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,429 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Echelon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Echelon's boundary and the 1,790 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Echelon's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Echelonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Echelon's 1,790 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Camden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Camden 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 Camden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Echelon's 1,790 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Echelon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,790 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 Echelon-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyEchelon sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides