Newton, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Newton, 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 Newton 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 Newton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Newton — the short answer
Newton, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- 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 6b is Newton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Newton's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Newton
Each reading below is measured for Newton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNewton runs about 200 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
MeasuredNewton 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 Newton is in
Newton sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Newton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sussex County.
What Grows in Newton
Every plant below cleared Newton's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Newton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Newton
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Newton, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Newton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Newton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILSHIRE REALTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NEWTON EXXON INC DBA NEWTON CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- THORLABSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- U-SAVE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- THORLABS FINISHINGBrownfields · 1500 ft
- NEWTON TOWN BD OF ED NEWTON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1500 ft
- KNIPPENBERG PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NEWTON HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- THORLABS INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- NEWTON PLASTICS DIV ARDEN CHEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- S&L AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- QARMOUT ASSOCIATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Newton'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 Newton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Newton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Newton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Newton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Newton — PFAS (8 sites) and Superfund (8 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Newton
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 Newton average
Your land is one point inside Newton
Everything above resolves to Newton 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 Newton Average
Newton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Newton
- ●One soil character for all of Newton
- ●Frost dates read at Newton's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Newton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Newton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Newton, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Newton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Newton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Newton average
How we know this about Newton
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 Newton’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 Newton
When does frost risk typically end in Newton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Newton typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Newton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Newton typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Newton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Newton sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 11, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Newton?
The federal record around Newton runs heavier than most — 582 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (338), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Newton?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Newton's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Newton'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 Newton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Newton's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,150 acres it covers and 582 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Newton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Newton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 25 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 582 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Newton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Newton's boundary and the 2,150 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Newton's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Newtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Newton's 2,150 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sussex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sussex 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 Sussex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Newton's 2,150 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Newton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,150 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Newton-wide figureread your own land →