Ledgewood, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ledgewood, 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 Ledgewood 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 Ledgewood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ledgewood — the short answer
Ledgewood, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Ledgewood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ledgewood's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ledgewood
Each reading below is measured for Ledgewood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLedgewood runs about 189 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
MeasuredLedgewood 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 Ledgewood is in
Ledgewood sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Ledgewood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morris County.
What Grows in Ledgewood
Every plant below cleared Ledgewood's own zone 6b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ledgewood?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Ledgewood
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Ledgewood, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ledgewood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ledgewood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROXBURY TWP W DEPT-SKY VPFAS · 25 ft
- ROXBURY TWP W DEPT-SHOREPFAS · 25 ft
- MOTION AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 2200 ft
- DAWSON MARINE & SUPPLY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- TEXACO SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ROXBURY TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- TOWNE TOYOTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- GARDEN STATE BMWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- G&N GAS & GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- KINGTOWNTRUCKSTOP LLC T/A CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- EXXON STORE 3-2591Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GEORGE UNDERHILL EXCAVATING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ledgewood'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 Ledgewood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ledgewood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ledgewood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ledgewood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ledgewood — PFAS (25 sites) and Nitrate (640 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Ledgewood
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 Ledgewood average
Your land is one point inside Ledgewood
Everything above resolves to Ledgewood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Ledgewood Average
Ledgewood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ledgewood
- ●One soil character for all of Ledgewood
- ●Frost dates read at Ledgewood's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ledgewood's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ledgewood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ledgewood, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ledgewood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ledgewood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ledgewood average
How we know this about Ledgewood
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 Ledgewood’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 Ledgewood
When does frost risk typically end in Ledgewood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ledgewood typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Ledgewood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ledgewood typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ledgewood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ledgewood sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 8, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ledgewood?
The federal record around Ledgewood runs heavier than most — 1,669 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (707), the nearest PFAS 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 Ledgewood?
From about Sep 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 Oct 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ledgewood's scale — its 6b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ledgewood'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 Ledgewood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ledgewood's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,542 acres it covers and 1,669 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ledgewood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ledgewood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 22 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,669 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ledgewood, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ledgewood's boundary and the 3,542 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ledgewood's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ledgewoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ledgewood's 3,542 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 Ledgewood's 3,542 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ledgewood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,542 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Ledgewood-wide figureread your own land →