Smithville, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Smithville, 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 Smithville 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 Smithville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Smithville — the short answer
Smithville, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Smithville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Smithville's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Smithville
Each reading below is measured for Smithville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSmithville 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
MeasuredSmithville 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 Smithville is in
Smithville sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Smithville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Atlantic County.
What Grows in Smithville
Every plant below cleared Smithville'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 Smithville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 Smithville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Smithville, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Smithville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Smithville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 010973-- 3/17 MossmillNitrate · 2000 ft
- HISTORIC SMITHVILLE AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NJ AMERICAN WATER CO SMITHVILLE TANKBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- GALLOWAY SP BARRACKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #1033Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- SPIRIT GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SMITHVILLE PUMPING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- RISKO INC MOTTS CREEK INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- VILLAGE CLEANERSSBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SEAVIEW COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- GALLOWAY TWPSuperfund · 1.4 mi
- GALLOWAY TWPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Smithville'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 Smithville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Smithville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Smithville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Smithville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Smithville — Superfund (18 sites) and PFAS (8 sites). 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.
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 Smithville
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 Smithville average
Your land is one point inside Smithville
Everything above resolves to Smithville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Smithville Average
Smithville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Smithville
- ●One soil character for all of Smithville
- ●Frost dates read at Smithville's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Smithville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Smithville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Smithville, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Smithville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Smithville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smithville average
How we know this about Smithville
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 Smithville’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 Smithville
When does frost risk typically end in Smithville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Smithville typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Smithville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Smithville typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Smithville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Smithville sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Nov 3, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Smithville?
The federal record around Smithville runs heavier than most — 904 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (552), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Smithville?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Smithville's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Smithville'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 Smithville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Smithville's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,553 acres it covers and 904 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Smithville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Smithville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 17 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 904 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Smithville, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Smithville's boundary and the 3,553 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 Smithville's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Smithvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Smithville's 3,553 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Atlantic County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Atlantic 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 Atlantic County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Smithville's 3,553 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Smithville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,553 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Smithville-wide figureread your own land →