Hightstown, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hightstown, 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 Hightstown 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 Hightstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hightstown — the short answer
Hightstown, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 789 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 789 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 7a is Hightstown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hightstown's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hightstown
Each reading below is measured for Hightstown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHightstown runs about 217 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
MeasuredHightstown sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Hightstown is in
Hightstown sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hightstown's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mercer County is mostly Northern Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hightstown
Every plant below cleared Hightstown's own zone 7a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hightstown?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Hightstown
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Hightstown, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hightstown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hightstown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ESTATE OF IRA ZELNCIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- HIGHTSTOWN MAIN POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CITY AUTO COLLISION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- SUNOCO 0004-9932Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- GORDON & WILSON COUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- PEDDIE SCHOOLBrownfields · 550 ft
- HIGHTS ELECTRIC MOTOR SERVICE INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- R H DEBAUN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CCL LABEL INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- PHILIPS LIGHTING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GULF SERVICE STATION 2927 (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SHIL CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hightstown'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 Hightstown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hightstown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hightstown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hightstown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hightstown — Superfund (25 sites) and Nitrate (420 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hightstown
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 Hightstown average
Your land is one point inside Hightstown
Everything above resolves to Hightstown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 789 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 Hightstown Average
Hightstown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Hightstown
- ●One soil character for all of Hightstown
- ●Frost dates read at Hightstown's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hightstown's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hightstown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hightstown, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hightstown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hightstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hightstown average
How we know this about Hightstown
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 Hightstown’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 Hightstown
When does frost risk typically end in Hightstown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hightstown typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Hightstown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hightstown typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hightstown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hightstown sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 21, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hightstown?
The federal record around Hightstown runs heavier than most — 1,622 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (708), 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 Hightstown?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hightstown's scale — its 7a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hightstown'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 Hightstown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hightstown's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 789 acres it covers and 1,622 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hightstown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hightstown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 4 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,622 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hightstown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hightstown's boundary and the 789 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hightstown sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hightstownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hightstown's 789 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hightstown's 789 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hightstown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 789 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 Hightstown-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyHightstown sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides