Far Hills, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Far Hills, 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 Far Hills 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 Far Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Far Hills — the short answer
Far Hills, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Far Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Far Hills's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Far Hills
Each reading below is measured for Far Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFar Hills runs about 205 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
MeasuredFar Hills 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 Far Hills is in
Far Hills sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Far Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Far Hills
Every plant below cleared Far Hills's own zone 7a and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Far Hills?
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 Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Far Hills
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Far Hills, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Far Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Far Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WELSH'S MOTOR SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BEDMINSTER PETROLEUM GROUP NJ 0118Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 350101-- LiNJ Pd16Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- SU GOLF HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PUBLIC WORKS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- BEDMINSTER TWP DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- JAMES F HURLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- LIGHTHIPE VERAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- BEDMINSTER SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- ENVIRONMENTAL DISPOSAL CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- STEPHEN NAZARYKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- ERICSONS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Far Hills'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 Far Hills.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Far Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Far Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Far Hills, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 37 sites within ~10 miles of Far Hills. 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 Far Hills
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 Far Hills average
Your land is one point inside Far Hills
Everything above resolves to Far Hills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Far Hills Average
Far Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Far Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Far Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Far Hills's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Far Hills's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Far Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Far Hills, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Far Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Far Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Far Hills average
How we know this about Far Hills
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 Far Hills’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 Far Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Far Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Far Hills typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Far Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Far Hills typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Far Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Far Hills sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 16, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Far Hills?
The federal record around Far Hills runs heavier than most — 1,151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (695), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Far Hills?
From about Sep 30 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 Oct 30 (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 Oct 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Far Hills's scale — its 7a band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Far Hills'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 Far Hills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Far Hills's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,102 acres it covers and 1,151 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Far Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Far Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 30 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,151 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Far Hills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Far Hills's boundary and the 3,102 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Far Hills's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Far Hillslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Far Hills's 3,102 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Far Hills's 3,102 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Far Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,102 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Far Hills-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyFar Hills sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides