Somerville, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Somerville, 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 Somerville 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 Somerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Somerville — the short answer
Somerville, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- 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 7a is Somerville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Somerville's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Somerville
Each reading below is measured for Somerville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSomerville runs about 212 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
MeasuredSomerville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Somerville is in
Somerville sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Somerville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Somerville
Every plant below cleared Somerville's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Somerville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Somerville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Somerville, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Somerville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Somerville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOMERSET CNTY JAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MECHANIC STREET GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PIONEER GLASS CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- PUBLIC SAFETY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- COURT ANNEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- GSA BELLE MEAD SUPPLY DEPOTBrownfields · 950 ft
- ADMINISTRATION BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SOMERVILLE AUTO SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 130 EAST MAIN STREETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MINUTEMAN PRESSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- DOM TUFAROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Somerville'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 Somerville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Somerville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Somerville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Somerville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Somerville — Superfund (60 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (169 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Somerville
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 Somerville average
Your land is one point inside Somerville
Everything above resolves to Somerville 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 Somerville Average
Somerville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Somerville
- ●One soil character for all of Somerville
- ●Frost dates read at Somerville's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Somerville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Somerville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Somerville, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Somerville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Somerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Somerville average
How we know this about Somerville
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 Somerville’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 Somerville
When does frost risk typically end in Somerville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Somerville typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Somerville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Somerville typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Somerville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Somerville sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 19, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Somerville?
The federal record around Somerville runs heavier than most — 2,033 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,097), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Somerville?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Somerville's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Somerville'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 Somerville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Somerville's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,496 acres it covers and 2,033 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Somerville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Somerville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 2 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,033 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Somerville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Somerville's boundary and the 1,496 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Somerville's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Somervillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Somerville's 1,496 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Somerville's 1,496 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Somerville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,496 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Somerville-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseySomerville sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides