Marlboro, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Marlboro, 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 Marlboro 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 Marlboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marlboro — the short answer
Marlboro, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 246 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 246 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 Marlboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marlboro's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marlboro
Each reading below is measured for Marlboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarlboro runs about 236 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
MeasuredMarlboro 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 Marlboro is in
Marlboro sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marlboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cumberland County.
What Grows in Marlboro
Every plant below cleared Marlboro's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marlboro?
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 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 16 — 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 Marlboro
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Marlboro, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Marlboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marlboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- M R DICKINSON & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- JO VIN FARMS INC (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 330235-- Dom 1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- MILLERS AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- THOMAS LAROCCAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 110287-- Irr 1979Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- IRENES TEXACO DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- ROBERT HAMPTON INC/TRUST WORTHY HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HERESTO PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- BRIDGETON AGWAY FARM CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 110083-- Irr 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 111154-- StOW Creek MW41Nitrate · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marlboro'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 Marlboro.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marlboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marlboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marlboro, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 284 sites within ~10 miles of Marlboro. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Marlboro
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 Marlboro average
Your land is one point inside Marlboro
Everything above resolves to Marlboro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 246 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 Marlboro Average
Marlboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Marlboro
- ●One soil character for all of Marlboro
- ●Frost dates read at Marlboro's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marlboro's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marlboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marlboro, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marlboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marlboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marlboro average
How we know this about Marlboro
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 Marlboro’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 Marlboro
When does frost risk typically end in Marlboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marlboro 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 Marlboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marlboro typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marlboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marlboro sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 2, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marlboro?
The federal record around Marlboro is a meaningful one — 574 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (284), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Marlboro?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marlboro's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marlboro'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 Marlboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Marlboro's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 246 acres it covers and 574 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marlboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marlboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 16 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 574 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marlboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marlboro's boundary and the 246 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marlboro's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Marlborolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marlboro's 246 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cumberland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cumberland 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 Cumberland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marlboro's 246 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marlboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 246 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Marlboro-wide figureread your own land →