Rockaway, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rockaway, 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 Rockaway 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 Rockaway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rockaway — the short answer
Rockaway, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- 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 6b is Rockaway's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rockaway's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rockaway
Each reading below is measured for Rockaway itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRockaway runs about 202 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
MeasuredRockaway 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 Rockaway is in
Rockaway sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Rockaway's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morris County.
What Grows in Rockaway
Every plant below cleared Rockaway's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rockaway?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Rockaway
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Rockaway, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rockaway
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rockaway. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARGO FUEL LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- ROCKAWAY AUTO BODYBrownfields · 950 ft
- GARDEN STATE ASPHALT MATERIALSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- KARSAN REALTY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- TRI COUNTY ASPHALT CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SWAN TUBE FABRICATORS CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BOROUGH WELL 3 STANDBY GENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BLAST-MASTERBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ALLIED CONCRETE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ALLIED CONCRETE CO INC - ROCKAWAYToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- 95217 GETTY HRUSKAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BP SERVICE STATION #10078Brownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rockaway'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 Rockaway.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rockaway
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rockaway
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rockaway, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rockaway — Superfund (50 sites) and PFAS (22 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Rockaway
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 Rockaway average
Your land is one point inside Rockaway
Everything above resolves to Rockaway 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 Rockaway Average
Rockaway Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Rockaway
- ●One soil character for all of Rockaway
- ●Frost dates read at Rockaway's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rockaway's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rockaway
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rockaway, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rockaway averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rockaway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rockaway average
How we know this about Rockaway
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 Rockaway’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 Rockaway
When does frost risk typically end in Rockaway?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rockaway typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Rockaway?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rockaway typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rockaway?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rockaway sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 14, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rockaway?
The federal record around Rockaway runs heavier than most — 2,264 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,077), 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 Rockaway?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rockaway's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rockaway'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 Rockaway’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rockaway's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,329 acres it covers and 2,264 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rockaway's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rockaway's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 28 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,264 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rockaway, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rockaway's boundary and the 1,329 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rockaway's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Rockawaylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rockaway's 1,329 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morris County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morris 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 Morris County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rockaway's 1,329 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rockaway you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,329 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 Rockaway-wide figureread your own land →