Little Silver, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Little Silver, 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 Little Silver 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 Little Silver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Little Silver — the short answer
Little Silver, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 244 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~244
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Little Silver's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Little Silver's 244-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Little Silver
Each reading below is measured for Little Silver itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLittle Silver runs about 244 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
MeasuredLittle Silver 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 Little Silver is in
Little Silver sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Little Silver's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monmouth County.
What Grows in Little Silver
Every plant below cleared Little Silver's own zone 7b and its 244-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Little Silver?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Little Silver
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Little Silver, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Little Silver
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Little Silver. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- POINT ROAD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1400 ft
- WALGREENS #2706Brownfields · 1700 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #0790Brownfields · 1900 ft
- ACME #292Brownfields · 1900 ft
- LITTLE SILVER BOROUGH FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WILLOW CLEANERS INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BURDGES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LITTLE SILVER CLEANERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LITTLE SILVER AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HUNTERS SUPERIOR SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- A&A COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FORMER EXXONMOBIL SERVICE STATION #32046Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Little Silver'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 Little Silver.
Total Sites
1,253
within ~10 miles of Little Silver
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Little Silver
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Little Silver
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Little Silver, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Little Silver — Underground Storage Tanks (878 sites) and Superfund (17 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Little Silver
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 Little Silver average
Your land is one point inside Little Silver
Everything above resolves to Little Silver as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Little Silver Average
Little Silver Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Little Silver
- ●One soil character for all of Little Silver
- ●Frost dates read at Little Silver's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Little Silver's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Little Silver
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Little Silver, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Little Silver averages can't show:
We read public map data around Little Silver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Little Silver average
How we know this about Little Silver
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 Little Silver’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 Little Silver
When does frost risk typically end in Little Silver?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Little Silver typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Little Silver?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Little Silver typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 244 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Little Silver?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Little Silver sees about 244 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 9, about 209 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Little Silver?
The federal record around Little Silver is a meaningful one — 1,253 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (878), the nearest Brownfields 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 Little Silver?
From about Oct 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 Nov 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Little Silver's scale — its 7b band and its 244-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Little Silver'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 Little Silver’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Little Silver's own scale — its own ~244-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,736 acres it covers and 1,253 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Little Silver's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Little Silver's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 23 and the ~244-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,253 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Little Silver, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Little Silver's boundary and the 1,736 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~244-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Little Silver's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Little Silverlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Little Silver's 1,736 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 Little Silver's 1,736 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Little Silver you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,736 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 Little Silver-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyLittle Silver sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides