Hibernia, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hibernia, 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 Hibernia 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 Hibernia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hibernia — the short answer
Hibernia, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 6b is Hibernia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hibernia's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hibernia
Each reading below is measured for Hibernia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHibernia runs about 193 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHibernia 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 Hibernia is in
Hibernia sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Hibernia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morris County.
What Grows in Hibernia
Every plant below cleared Hibernia's own zone 6b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hibernia?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Hibernia
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Hibernia, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hibernia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hibernia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HIBERNIA AUTO RESTORATIONSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- 271852-- SUS 0402 DomNitrate · 0.8 mi
- PICATINNY AASFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TELEMARK AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ROCKAWAY TOWNSHIP LOW ERIE WATER TANKBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- ROCKAWAY BORO WATER DEPTPFAS · 1.0 mi
- ROCKAWAY TWP WATER DEPTPFAS · 1.0 mi
- DISC GRAPHICS LABEL GROUP INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- GEORGE L DECKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ROCKAWAY TWP BOARD OF EDUCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- COUNTRYSIDE INTERNATL TRUCK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- IHI IONBOND, INC.Brownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hibernia'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 Hibernia.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hibernia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hibernia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hibernia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hibernia — Superfund (42 sites) and PFAS (19 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Hibernia
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 Hibernia average
Your land is one point inside Hibernia
Everything above resolves to Hibernia 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 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 Hibernia Average
Hibernia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hibernia
- ●One soil character for all of Hibernia
- ●Frost dates read at Hibernia's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hibernia's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hibernia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hibernia, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hibernia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hibernia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hibernia average
How we know this about Hibernia
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 Hibernia’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 Hibernia
When does frost risk typically end in Hibernia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hibernia typically lands around Apr 14, 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 May 5.
When is the first frost in Hibernia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hibernia typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hibernia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hibernia sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 10, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hibernia?
The federal record around Hibernia runs heavier than most — 1,993 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (981), 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 Hibernia?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hibernia's scale — its 6b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hibernia'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 Hibernia’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hibernia's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,382 acres it covers and 1,993 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hibernia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hibernia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 24 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,993 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hibernia, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hibernia's boundary and the 1,382 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hibernia's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hibernialydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hibernia's 1,382 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morris County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morris 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 Morris County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hibernia's 1,382 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hibernia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,382 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 Hibernia-wide figureread your own land →