Golden Triangle, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Golden Triangle, 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 Golden Triangle 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 Golden Triangle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Golden Triangle — the short answer
Golden Triangle, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 250 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)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- 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 Golden Triangle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Golden Triangle's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Golden Triangle
Each reading below is measured for Golden Triangle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGolden Triangle runs about 250 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
MeasuredGolden Triangle 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 Golden Triangle is in
Golden Triangle sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Golden Triangle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Camden County.
What Grows in Golden Triangle
Every plant below cleared Golden Triangle's own zone 7b and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Golden Triangle?
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 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 Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Golden Triangle
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Golden Triangle, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Golden Triangle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Golden Triangle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COSTCO WHOLESALE #1415Brownfields · 1400 ft
- LINCOLN GRAPHICS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- WAWA 8347Brownfields · 2000 ft
- ANDYS TOWING AND SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- NEW JERSEY ART SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SHOPRITE OF GARDEN STATEBrownfields · 2300 ft
- WINDSOR OPTICAL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- TWP OF CHERRY HILL POLICE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CHERRY HILL MUNICIPAL BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HOLIDAY INN CHERRY HILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- HOME DEPOT USA HD0989Brownfields · 2500 ft
- CHRISTMAS TREE SHOPS #7031Brownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Golden Triangle'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 Golden Triangle.
Total Sites
5,707
within ~10 miles of Golden Triangle
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
113 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Golden Triangle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Golden Triangle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Golden Triangle, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 113 sites within ~10 miles of Golden Triangle. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Golden Triangle
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 Golden Triangle average
Your land is one point inside Golden Triangle
Everything above resolves to Golden Triangle 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 Golden Triangle Average
Golden Triangle Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Golden Triangle
- ●One soil character for all of Golden Triangle
- ●Frost dates read at Golden Triangle's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Golden Triangle's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Golden Triangle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Golden Triangle, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Golden Triangle averages can't show:
We read public map data around Golden Triangle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Golden Triangle average
How we know this about Golden Triangle
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 Golden Triangle’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 Golden Triangle
When does frost risk typically end in Golden Triangle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Golden Triangle 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 Golden Triangle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Golden Triangle typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Golden Triangle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Golden Triangle sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 11, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Golden Triangle?
The federal record around Golden Triangle runs heavier than most — 5,707 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,915), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Golden Triangle?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Golden Triangle's scale — its 7b band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Golden Triangle'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 Golden Triangle’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Golden Triangle's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,809 acres it covers and 5,707 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Golden Triangle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Golden Triangle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 25 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,707 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Golden Triangle, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Golden Triangle's boundary and the 1,809 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Golden Triangle's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Golden Trianglelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Golden Triangle's 1,809 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Camden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Camden 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 Camden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Golden Triangle's 1,809 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Golden Triangle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,809 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Golden Triangle-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyGolden Triangle sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides