Leonardo, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, 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 Leonardo, 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 Leonardo 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 Leonardo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Leonardo — the short answer
Leonardo, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 380 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 380 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 Leonardo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leonardo's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leonardo
Each reading below is measured for Leonardo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeonardo runs about 251 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
MeasuredLeonardo 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 Leonardo is in
Leonardo sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leonardo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monmouth County.
What Grows in Leonardo
Every plant below cleared Leonardo's own zone 7b and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leonardo?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Leonardo
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Leonardo, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Leonardo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leonardo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEONARDO STATE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- E & N SERVICE CENTER INC T/A MOGASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ACADEMY LINES LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WAWA FOOD MARKET #8306Brownfields · 2000 ft
- WAWA FOOD MARKET #8306Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 288 ATLANTIC FUELSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MCCONNELL FUEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KING JAMES CARE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BEACON HILL COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SODON REALTY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 250009-- PW 2-SEALEDNitrate · 1.1 mi
- 250496-- PW 4Nitrate · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leonardo'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 Leonardo.
Total Sites
1,026
within ~10 miles of Leonardo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leonardo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leonardo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leonardo, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 681 sites within ~10 miles of Leonardo. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Leonardo
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 Leonardo average
Your land is one point inside Leonardo
Everything above resolves to Leonardo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 380 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 Leonardo Average
Leonardo Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Leonardo
- ●One soil character for all of Leonardo
- ●Frost dates read at Leonardo's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leonardo's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leonardo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leonardo, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leonardo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leonardo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leonardo average
How we know this about Leonardo
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 Leonardo’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 Leonardo
When does frost risk typically end in Leonardo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leonardo typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Leonardo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leonardo typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leonardo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leonardo sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 15, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leonardo?
The federal record around Leonardo is a meaningful one — 1,026 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (681), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Leonardo?
From about Oct 30 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 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 Nov 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leonardo's scale — its 7b band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leonardo'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 Leonardo’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Leonardo's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 380 acres it covers and 1,026 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leonardo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leonardo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 29 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,026 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leonardo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leonardo's boundary and the 380 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leonardo's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Leonardolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leonardo's 380 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monmouth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monmouth 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 Monmouth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leonardo's 380 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leonardo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 380 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Leonardo-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyLeonardo sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides