Fair Haven, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Fair Haven, 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 Fair Haven 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 Fair Haven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fair Haven — the short answer
Fair Haven, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 247 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- 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 Fair Haven's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fair Haven's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fair Haven
Each reading below is measured for Fair Haven itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFair Haven runs about 247 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
MeasuredFair Haven 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 Fair Haven is in
Fair Haven sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fair Haven's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monmouth County.
What Grows in Fair Haven
Every plant below cleared Fair Haven's own zone 7b and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fair Haven?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 26 — 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 Fair Haven
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Fair Haven, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fair Haven
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fair Haven. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RED BANK WATER DEPTPFAS · 25 ft
- FORMER SUNOCO 0007-6471Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MICHAEL DOELGER LAWN MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- FAIR HAVEN BOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MIC NIC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ACME 949Brownfields · 1200 ft
- FAIR HAVEN VALEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FLAIR CLEANERSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- FAIRHAVEN YACHT WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RED BANK BORO BD OF ED RGNL HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- RED BANK REGIONAL HS BD OF EDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DONALD'S & DELUXE LAUNDRY SERVICEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fair Haven'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 Fair Haven.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fair Haven
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fair Haven
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fair Haven, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 778 sites within ~10 miles of Fair Haven. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Fair Haven
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 Fair Haven average
Your land is one point inside Fair Haven
Everything above resolves to Fair Haven 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 Fair Haven Average
Fair Haven Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Fair Haven
- ●One soil character for all of Fair Haven
- ●Frost dates read at Fair Haven's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fair Haven's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fair Haven
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fair Haven, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fair Haven averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fair Haven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fair Haven average
How we know this about Fair Haven
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 Fair Haven’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 Fair Haven
When does frost risk typically end in Fair Haven?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fair Haven 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 Fair Haven?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fair Haven typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fair Haven?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fair Haven sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 12, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fair Haven?
The federal record around Fair Haven is a meaningful one — 1,136 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (778), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Fair Haven?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fair Haven's scale — its 7b band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fair Haven'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 Fair Haven’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fair Haven's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,020 acres it covers and 1,136 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fair Haven's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fair Haven's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 26 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,136 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fair Haven, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fair Haven's boundary and the 1,020 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fair Haven's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fair Havenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fair Haven's 1,020 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monmouth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monmouth 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 Monmouth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fair Haven's 1,020 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fair Haven you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,020 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Fair Haven-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyFair Haven sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides