Penns Grove, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Penns Grove, 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 Penns Grove 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 Penns Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Penns Grove — the short answer
Penns Grove, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 572 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 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 572 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 Penns Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Penns Grove's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Penns Grove
Each reading below is measured for Penns Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPenns Grove runs about 248 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
MeasuredPenns Grove 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 Penns Grove is in
Penns Grove sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Penns Grove's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Salem County is mostly Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Penns Grove
Every plant below cleared Penns Grove's own zone 7b and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Penns Grove?
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 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 23 — 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 Penns Grove
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Penns Grove, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Penns Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Penns Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- C&W AUTO REPAIR MOBIL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MUFFLER MART CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CLOSED CAR DEALERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FADI BOSTANIUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- 80 EAST MAIN STUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CHEVRON 203962Brownfields · 1400 ft
- MARINO PIZZERIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PENNS GROVE SEWERAGE AUTHORITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GILLETTE WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GUYON GENERAL PIPING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SHELL PENNSGROVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SCREWBALL INC PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Penns Grove'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 Penns Grove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Penns Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Penns Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Penns Grove, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 41 sites within ~10 miles of Penns Grove. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Penns Grove
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 Penns Grove average
Your land is one point inside Penns Grove
Everything above resolves to Penns Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 572 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 Penns Grove Average
Penns Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Penns Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Penns Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Penns Grove's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Penns Grove's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Penns Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Penns Grove, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Penns Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Penns Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Penns Grove average
How we know this about Penns Grove
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 Penns Grove’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 Penns Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Penns Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Penns Grove 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 Penns Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Penns Grove typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Penns Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Penns Grove sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 9, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Penns Grove?
The federal record around Penns Grove runs heavier than most — 2,682 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,290), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Penns Grove?
From about Oct 24 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 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 Nov 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Penns Grove's scale — its 7b band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Penns Grove'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 Penns Grove’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Penns Grove's own scale — its own ~248-day season between 28°F freezes, the 572 acres it covers and 2,682 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Penns Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Penns Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 23 and the ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,682 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Penns Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Penns Grove's boundary and the 572 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Penns Grove sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Penns Grovelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Penns Grove's 572 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 Penns Grove's 572 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Penns Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 572 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 Penns Grove-wide figureread your own land →
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