Fanwood, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Fanwood, 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 Fanwood 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 Fanwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fanwood — the short answer
Fanwood, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 858 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 858 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 Fanwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fanwood's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fanwood
Each reading below is measured for Fanwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFanwood runs about 231 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
MeasuredFanwood 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 Fanwood is in
Fanwood sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fanwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Union County.
What Grows in Fanwood
Every plant below cleared Fanwood's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fanwood?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Fanwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Fanwood, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fanwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fanwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FANWOOD BORO PUBLIC WORKS YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- ECONOCAR INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- FANWOOD BORO MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- FANWOOD BOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- FANWOOD FIRE HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- FANWOOD GETTY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CHURCH FAMILY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DOMS FANWOOD GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- OMEGAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FANWOOD EXXON 3-4185Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SHELL SERVICE STATION 138352Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fanwood'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 Fanwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fanwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fanwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fanwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fanwood — Superfund (116 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (327 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fanwood
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 Fanwood average
Your land is one point inside Fanwood
Everything above resolves to Fanwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 858 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 Fanwood Average
Fanwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Fanwood
- ●One soil character for all of Fanwood
- ●Frost dates read at Fanwood's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fanwood's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fanwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fanwood, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fanwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fanwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fanwood average
How we know this about Fanwood
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 Fanwood’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 Fanwood
When does frost risk typically end in Fanwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fanwood typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Fanwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fanwood typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fanwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fanwood sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 31, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fanwood?
The federal record around Fanwood runs heavier than most — 4,749 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,894), 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 Fanwood?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fanwood's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fanwood'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 Fanwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fanwood's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 858 acres it covers and 4,749 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fanwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fanwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 14 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,749 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fanwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fanwood's boundary and the 858 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fanwood's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fanwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fanwood's 858 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Union County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Union 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 Union County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fanwood's 858 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fanwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 858 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 Fanwood-wide figureread your own land →