Olivet, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Olivet, 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 Olivet 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 Olivet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Olivet — the short answer
Olivet, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- 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 Olivet's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Olivet's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Olivet
Each reading below is measured for Olivet itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOlivet runs about 233 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
MeasuredOlivet 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 Olivet is in
Olivet sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Olivet's own centroid rather than borrowed from Salem County.
What Grows in Olivet
Every plant below cleared Olivet's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Olivet?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Olivet
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Olivet, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Olivet
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Olivet. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ORVILLE MOOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 330465-- Dom 1Nitrate · 2300 ft
- CENTERTON GOLF ASSOCIATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ARTHUR P SCHALICK HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GARRISON FARMSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- ANDERSON COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PITTSGROVE TOWNSHIP MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 111580-- RUFARMO6-DeepNitrate · 1.4 mi
- 111579-- RUFARM06-ShallowNitrate · 1.4 mi
- 111577-- RUFARM05-ShallowNitrate · 1.4 mi
- 111578-- RUFARM05-DeepNitrate · 1.4 mi
- 111565-- RUFARM02 -DeepNitrate · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Olivet'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 Olivet.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Olivet
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Olivet
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Olivet, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Olivet — Superfund (29 sites) and Nitrate (426 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Olivet
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 Olivet average
Your land is one point inside Olivet
Everything above resolves to Olivet 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 Olivet Average
Olivet Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Olivet
- ●One soil character for all of Olivet
- ●Frost dates read at Olivet's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Olivet's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Olivet
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Olivet, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Olivet averages can't show:
We read public map data around Olivet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Olivet average
How we know this about Olivet
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 Olivet’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 Olivet
When does frost risk typically end in Olivet?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Olivet typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Olivet?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Olivet typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Olivet?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Olivet sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Nov 1, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Olivet?
The federal record around Olivet runs heavier than most — 1,094 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (515), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Olivet?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Olivet's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Olivet'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 Olivet’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Olivet's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,594 acres it covers and 1,094 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Olivet's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Olivet's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 15 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,094 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Olivet, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Olivet's boundary and the 1,594 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Olivet's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Olivetlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Olivet's 1,594 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Salem County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Salem 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 Salem County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Olivet's 1,594 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Olivet you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,594 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Olivet-wide figureread your own land →
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