Stratford, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Stratford, 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 Stratford 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 Stratford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stratford — the short answer
Stratford, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- 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 Stratford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stratford's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stratford
Each reading below is measured for Stratford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStratford runs about 240 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
MeasuredStratford 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 Stratford is in
Stratford sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Stratford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Camden County.
What Grows in Stratford
Every plant below cleared Stratford's own zone 7b and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stratford?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Stratford
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Stratford, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stratford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stratford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROWAN UNIVERSITY SOMUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LUKOIL #57337Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- STRATFORD AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KENNEDY UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL STRATFORD DIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- STRATFORD PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- KENNEDY MEMORIAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 2200 ft
- STERLING SD STERLING HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2400 ft
- NJ UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE & DENTISTRYBrownfields · 2400 ft
- 070311-- Laurel 15Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 070730-- Grand Ave OW-61Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- THOMAS VENUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 070306-- Laurel 4Nitrate · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stratford'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 Stratford.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stratford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stratford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stratford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Stratford — Superfund (66 sites) and Nitrate (942 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.
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 Stratford
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 Stratford average
Your land is one point inside Stratford
Everything above resolves to Stratford 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 Stratford Average
Stratford Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Stratford
- ●One soil character for all of Stratford
- ●Frost dates read at Stratford's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stratford's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stratford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stratford, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stratford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stratford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stratford average
How we know this about Stratford
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 Stratford’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 Stratford
When does frost risk typically end in Stratford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stratford typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Stratford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stratford typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stratford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stratford sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 4, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stratford?
The federal record around Stratford runs heavier than most — 3,461 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,759), 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 Stratford?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stratford's scale — its 7b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stratford'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 Stratford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stratford's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,005 acres it covers and 3,461 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stratford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stratford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 18 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,461 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stratford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stratford's boundary and the 1,005 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stratford's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Stratfordlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stratford's 1,005 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Camden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Camden 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 Camden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stratford's 1,005 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stratford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,005 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 Stratford-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyStratford sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides