Mount Arlington, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Mount Arlington, 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 Mount Arlington 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 Mount Arlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Arlington — the short answer
Mount Arlington, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Mount Arlington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Arlington's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Arlington
Each reading below is measured for Mount Arlington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Arlington runs about 191 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
MeasuredMount Arlington 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 Mount Arlington is in
Mount Arlington sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Mount Arlington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morris County.
What Grows in Mount Arlington
Every plant below cleared Mount Arlington's own zone 6b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Arlington?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Mount Arlington
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Mount Arlington, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mount Arlington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Arlington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOUNT ARLINGTON GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BARNES BROTHERS MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MT ARLINGTON BOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- OUR LADY OF THE LAKE RECTORYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- OUR LADY OF THE LAKE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MT ARLINGTON AUTO REPAIR (FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MT ARLINGTON FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MOUNT ARLINGTON BORO DPW MAINPFAS · 0.8 mi
- LAKE'S END MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LEE'S PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 271038-- Vail Rd 2Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 272198-- WellNitrate · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Arlington'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 Mount Arlington.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Arlington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Arlington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Arlington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mount Arlington — PFAS (27 sites) and Nitrate (608 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Mount Arlington
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 Mount Arlington average
Your land is one point inside Mount Arlington
Everything above resolves to Mount Arlington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Mount Arlington Average
Mount Arlington Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Mount Arlington
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Arlington
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Arlington's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Arlington's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Arlington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Arlington, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Arlington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Arlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Arlington average
How we know this about Mount Arlington
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 Mount Arlington’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 Mount Arlington
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Arlington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Arlington typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Mount Arlington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Arlington typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Arlington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Arlington sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 9, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Arlington?
The federal record around Mount Arlington runs heavier than most — 1,609 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (699), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles 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 Mount Arlington?
From about Sep 23 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 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 Oct 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Arlington's scale — its 6b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Arlington'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 Mount Arlington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mount Arlington's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,371 acres it covers and 1,609 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Arlington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Arlington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 23 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,609 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Arlington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Arlington's boundary and the 1,371 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Arlington's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mount Arlingtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Arlington's 1,371 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 Mount Arlington's 1,371 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Arlington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,371 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Mount Arlington-wide figureread your own land →