Garfield, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Garfield, 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 Garfield 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 Garfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Garfield — the short answer
Garfield, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Garfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garfield's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garfield
Each reading below is measured for Garfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGarfield runs about 239 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
MeasuredGarfield 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 Garfield is in
Garfield sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Garfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bergen County.
What Grows in Garfield
Every plant below cleared Garfield's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Garfield?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Garfield
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Garfield, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Garfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GARFIELD WATER DEPARTMENTPFAS · 25 ft
- VOGUE CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FORMER WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL #5Brownfields · 1000 ft
- ANDY'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MERIDIA TRANSIT CROSSING GARFIELD LLCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SKETCHLEY TEXTILE RENTAL SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CHERRY HILL BUS CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BLUE RIDGE OIL CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GARFIELD CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HICKS BROTHERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BELMONT GARDENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- STAR DYNAMIC CORPBrownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garfield'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 Garfield.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Garfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Garfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Garfield — Superfund (158 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (5,358 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Garfield
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 Garfield average
Your land is one point inside Garfield
Everything above resolves to Garfield 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 city 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 Garfield Average
Garfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Garfield
- ●One soil character for all of Garfield
- ●Frost dates read at Garfield's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garfield's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garfield, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garfield average
How we know this about Garfield
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Garfield’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Garfield
When does frost risk typically end in Garfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garfield typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Garfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garfield typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Garfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garfield sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 5, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garfield?
The federal record around Garfield runs heavier than most — 8,304 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (5,358), the nearest PFAS 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 Garfield?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Garfield's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garfield'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 Garfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Garfield's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,351 acres it covers and 8,304 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Garfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 19 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 8,304 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garfield, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garfield's boundary and the 1,351 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Garfield's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Garfieldlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Garfield's 1,351 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 Garfield's 1,351 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,351 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 Garfield-wide figureread your own land →