River Edge, 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 River Edge, 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 River Edge 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 River Edge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
River Edge — the short answer
River Edge, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 244 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- 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
- ~244
- 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 7b is River Edge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against River Edge's 244-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in River Edge
Each reading below is measured for River Edge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRiver Edge runs about 244 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
MeasuredRiver Edge 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 River Edge is in
River Edge sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at River Edge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bergen County.
What Grows in River Edge
Every plant below cleared River Edge's own zone 7b and its 244-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in River Edge?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around River Edge
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from River Edge, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near River Edge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of River Edge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DELTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SHELL SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- RIVER EDGE BORO HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #2950Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- DPW BORO OF NEW MILFORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NJTA ENGINEERING DISTRICT P1Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- NEW MILFORD SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- THE COACHWORKS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- VAN SAUN PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NEW MILFORD HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SUPER VALUE - CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from River Edge'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 River Edge.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of River Edge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of River Edge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around River Edge, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 109 sites within ~10 miles of River Edge. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 River Edge
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 River Edge average
Your land is one point inside River Edge
Everything above resolves to River Edge 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 River Edge Average
River Edge Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across River Edge
- ●One soil character for all of River Edge
- ●Frost dates read at River Edge's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not River Edge's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in River Edge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in River Edge, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that River Edge averages can't show:
We read public map data around River Edge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the River Edge average
How we know this about River Edge
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 River Edge’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 River Edge
When does frost risk typically end in River Edge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in River Edge typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in River Edge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in River Edge 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 244 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in River Edge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, River Edge sees about 244 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 9, about 209 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in River Edge?
The federal record around River Edge runs heavier than most — 7,850 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (4,820), 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 River Edge?
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 River Edge's scale — its 7b band and its 244-day season. Your yard writes its own version of River Edge'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 River Edge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at River Edge's own scale — its own ~244-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,173 acres it covers and 7,850 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- River Edge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- River Edge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 23 and the ~244-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7,850 documented contamination sites on the federal record near River Edge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- River Edge's boundary and the 1,173 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~244-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at River Edge's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of River Edgelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so River Edge's 1,173 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bergen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bergen 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 Bergen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among River Edge's 1,173 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of River Edge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,173 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 River Edge-wide figureread your own land →