Hackettstown, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hackettstown, 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 Hackettstown 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 Hackettstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hackettstown — the short answer
Hackettstown, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- 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 6b is Hackettstown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hackettstown's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hackettstown
Each reading below is measured for Hackettstown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHackettstown runs about 203 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
MeasuredHackettstown sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Hackettstown is in
Hackettstown sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hackettstown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Warren County.
What Grows in Hackettstown
Every plant below cleared Hackettstown's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hackettstown?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Hackettstown
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Hackettstown, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hackettstown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hackettstown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- WARCO P&H SUPPLY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- VALLEY AUTO & TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WILLIAM J KINSEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TN PUBLISHING INC STAR GAZETTE DIVBrownfields · 1000 ft
- FURHMAN ASSOCIATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MOORE ST FIRE HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HACKETTSTOWN GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HOSKING LIVERY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BLUE RIDGE LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ASSUMPTION OF BLESSED VIRGIN MARY PARISH-RECBrownfields · 1500 ft
- MILLER ST FIRE HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hackettstown'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 Hackettstown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hackettstown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hackettstown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hackettstown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hackettstown — PFAS (17 sites) and Nitrate (264 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hackettstown
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 Hackettstown average
Your land is one point inside Hackettstown
Everything above resolves to Hackettstown 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 Hackettstown Average
Hackettstown Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hackettstown
- ●One soil character for all of Hackettstown
- ●Frost dates read at Hackettstown's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hackettstown's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hackettstown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hackettstown, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hackettstown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hackettstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hackettstown average
How we know this about Hackettstown
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 Hackettstown’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 Hackettstown
When does frost risk typically end in Hackettstown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hackettstown typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Hackettstown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hackettstown typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hackettstown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hackettstown sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 15, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hackettstown?
The federal record around Hackettstown runs heavier than most — 862 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (412), 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 Hackettstown?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hackettstown's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hackettstown'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 Hackettstown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hackettstown's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,312 acres it covers and 862 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hackettstown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hackettstown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 29 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 862 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hackettstown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hackettstown's boundary and the 2,312 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hackettstown's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hackettstownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hackettstown's 2,312 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warren 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 Warren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hackettstown's 2,312 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hackettstown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,312 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 Hackettstown-wide figureread your own land →