Kean University, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Kean University, 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 Kean University 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 Kean University — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kean University — the short answer
Kean University, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 187 acres of town.
- 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 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 187 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 Kean University's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kean University's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kean University
Each reading below is measured for Kean University itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKean University runs about 241 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
MeasuredKean University 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 Kean University is in
Kean University sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kean University's own centroid rather than borrowed from Union County.
What Grows in Kean University
Every plant below cleared Kean University's own zone 7b and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kean University?
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 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Kean University
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Kean University, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kean University
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kean University. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KEAN UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 500 ft
- KEAN UNIVERSITY OF NJUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- THOMPSON & COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MERCK SHARP& DOHME CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SANTOS SERVICE CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MORRIS AMERICAN SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BORDEN METAL PRODUCTS INC (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BORDEN METAL PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ENR-G SVC CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #2026Brownfields · 2100 ft
- ELIZABETH MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- REISEN LUMBER INDUSTRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kean University'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 Kean University.
Total Sites
7,122
within ~10 miles of Kean University
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
158 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kean University
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kean University
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kean University, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kean University — Superfund (158 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (4,439 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.
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 Kean University
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 Kean University average
Your land is one point inside Kean University
Everything above resolves to Kean University as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 187 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 Kean University Average
Kean University Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Kean University
- ●One soil character for all of Kean University
- ●Frost dates read at Kean University's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kean University's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kean University
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kean University, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kean University averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kean University — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kean University average
How we know this about Kean University
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 Kean University’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 Kean University
When does frost risk typically end in Kean University?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kean University 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 Kean University?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kean University typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kean University?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kean University sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 7, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kean University?
The federal record around Kean University runs heavier than most — 7,122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (4,439), the nearest Brownfields 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 Kean University?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kean University's scale — its 7b band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kean University'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 Kean University’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kean University's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 187 acres it covers and 7,122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kean University's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kean University's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 21 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7,122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kean University, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kean University's boundary and the 187 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kean University's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kean Universitylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kean University's 187 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Union County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Union 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 Union County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kean University's 187 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kean University you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 187 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Kean University-wide figureread your own land →