Fort Lee, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Lee, 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 Fort Lee 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 Fort Lee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Lee — the short answer
Fort Lee, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- 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 Fort Lee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Lee's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Lee
Each reading below is measured for Fort Lee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Lee runs about 257 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
MeasuredFort Lee 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 Fort Lee is in
Fort Lee sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Lee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bergen County.
What Grows in Fort Lee
Every plant below cleared Fort Lee's own zone 7b and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Lee?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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 Fort Lee
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Fort Lee, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort Lee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Lee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WHITEMAN PARK PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #10655Brownfields · 700 ft
- JM LIGHTING SERVICES LLCBrownfields · 950 ft
- FORT LEE BORO MUNICIPAL BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BABES TAXIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WASHINGTON BRIDGE SERVICE STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WASHINGTON BRIDGE EXXON 4154Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DELTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE & BUS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- JAG'D CONSTRUCTION INC/GEO. WASHINGTON BR 244Brownfields · 1500 ft
- MEDITERRANEAN TOWERS SOUTHBrownfields · 1800 ft
- POLYCHROME CORP.Toxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Lee'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 Fort Lee.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Lee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Lee
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Fort Lee
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 Fort Lee average
Your land is one point inside Fort Lee
Everything above resolves to Fort Lee 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 Fort Lee Average
Fort Lee Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Fort Lee
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Lee
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Lee's scale: Mar 20 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Lee's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Lee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Lee, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Lee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Lee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Lee average
How we know this about Fort Lee
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 Fort Lee’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 Fort Lee
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Lee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Lee typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Fort Lee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Lee typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Lee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Lee sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 18, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Lee?
The federal record around Fort Lee runs heavier than most — 14,619 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (8,401), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fort Lee?
From about Nov 2 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 Dec 2 (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 Dec 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Lee's scale — its 7b band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Lee'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 Fort Lee’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort Lee's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,612 acres it covers and 14,619 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Lee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Lee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Dec 2 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 14,619 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Lee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Lee's boundary and the 1,612 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Lee's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fort Leelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Lee's 1,612 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bergen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bergen 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 Bergen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Lee's 1,612 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Lee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,612 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fort Lee-wide figureread your own land →