Sewell, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Sewell, 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 Sewell 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 Sewell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sewell — the short answer
Sewell, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- 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 Sewell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sewell's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sewell
Each reading below is measured for Sewell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSewell runs about 243 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
MeasuredSewell 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 Sewell is in
Sewell sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sewell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gloucester County.
What Grows in Sewell
Every plant below cleared Sewell's own zone 7b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sewell?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Sewell
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Sewell, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sewell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sewell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOGAN TWP M.U.A.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 150191-- PW 2Nitrate · 2400 ft
- LUKOIL #57277Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 150007-- Sewell 2Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- GETTY SERVICE STATION #56117Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TARGET STORE T2384Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #17447Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- MARVIN JONAS INCSuperfund · 0.8 mi
- PITMAN AIRPORT (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LOWES HOME CENTER #2402Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- J MASON TOMLIN SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DELAWARE VALLEY FLORAL GROUPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sewell'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 Sewell.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sewell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sewell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sewell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sewell — Superfund (46 sites) and Nitrate (938 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 Sewell
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 Sewell average
Your land is one point inside Sewell
Everything above resolves to Sewell 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 Sewell Average
Sewell Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Sewell
- ●One soil character for all of Sewell
- ●Frost dates read at Sewell's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sewell's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sewell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sewell, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sewell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sewell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sewell average
How we know this about Sewell
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 Sewell’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 Sewell
When does frost risk typically end in Sewell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sewell typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Sewell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sewell typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sewell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sewell sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 6, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sewell?
The federal record around Sewell runs heavier than most — 2,601 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,103), 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 Sewell?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sewell's scale — its 7b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sewell'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 Sewell’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sewell's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,276 acres it covers and 2,601 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sewell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sewell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 20 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,601 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sewell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sewell's boundary and the 1,276 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sewell's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Sewelllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sewell's 1,276 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 Sewell's 1,276 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sewell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,276 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 Sewell-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseySewell sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides