Oak Valley, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Oak Valley, 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 Oak Valley 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 Oak Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oak Valley — the short answer
Oak Valley, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 447 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 447 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 Oak Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oak Valley's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oak Valley
Each reading below is measured for Oak Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOak Valley runs about 249 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
MeasuredOak Valley 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 Oak Valley is in
Oak Valley sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oak Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gloucester County.
What Grows in Oak Valley
Every plant below cleared Oak Valley's own zone 7b and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oak Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Oak Valley
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Oak Valley, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Oak Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oak Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 150011-- PW 2Nitrate · 2000 ft
- AUTO SHINE PLUS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- STAR ENTERPRISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MIDDLE ATLANTIC MILLWORK COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 150016-- PW 1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #1165Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- AMOCO SERVICE STATION 2066Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WOODBURY CITY W DEPTPFAS · 0.6 mi
- PINE ACRES EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTERBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- GEORGE LEES AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 150275-- Wenonah PW 2 - SEALEDNitrate · 0.7 mi
- 150276-- West Deptford PW 4Nitrate · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oak Valley'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 Oak Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oak Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oak Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oak Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Oak Valley — Superfund (71 sites) and Nitrate (978 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Oak Valley
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 Oak Valley average
Your land is one point inside Oak Valley
Everything above resolves to Oak Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 447 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 Oak Valley Average
Oak Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Oak Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Oak Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Oak Valley's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oak Valley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oak Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oak Valley, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oak Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oak Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oak Valley average
How we know this about Oak Valley
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 Oak Valley’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 Oak Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Oak Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Valley typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Oak Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Valley typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oak Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oak Valley sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 10, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oak Valley?
The federal record around Oak Valley runs heavier than most — 3,658 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,647), the nearest Nitrate 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 Oak Valley?
From about Oct 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 Nov 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oak Valley's scale — its 7b band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oak Valley'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 Oak Valley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Oak Valley's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 447 acres it covers and 3,658 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oak Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oak Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 24 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,658 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oak Valley, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oak Valley's boundary and the 447 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oak Valley's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Oak Valleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oak Valley's 447 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gloucester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gloucester 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 Gloucester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oak Valley's 447 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oak Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 447 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Oak Valley-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyOak Valley sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides