Tenafly, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tenafly, 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 Tenafly 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 Tenafly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tenafly — the short answer
Tenafly, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 244 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~244
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Tenafly's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tenafly's 244-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tenafly
Each reading below is measured for Tenafly itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTenafly runs about 244 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
MeasuredTenafly 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 Tenafly is in
Tenafly sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tenafly's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bergen County.
What Grows in Tenafly
Every plant below cleared Tenafly's own zone 7a and its 244-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tenafly?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Tenafly
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Tenafly, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tenafly
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tenafly. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MONTAMMY GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DEAN-LINDEN S/C 0359Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HIGH TECH AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- D&C CHEVROLET COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NISSANS AMOCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- EXXON R/S 32156Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MARCOS TENAFLY SERVICE STATION IUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SEOUL AUTO SERVICE CORPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SEOUL AUTO SERVICE - FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- RIDGEWOOD CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TENAFLY AUTO REPAIR FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TAMCREST COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tenafly'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 Tenafly.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tenafly
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tenafly
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Tenafly
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 Tenafly average
Your land is one point inside Tenafly
Everything above resolves to Tenafly as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Tenafly Average
Tenafly Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Tenafly
- ●One soil character for all of Tenafly
- ●Frost dates read at Tenafly's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tenafly's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tenafly
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tenafly, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tenafly averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tenafly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tenafly average
How we know this about Tenafly
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 Tenafly’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 Tenafly
When does frost risk typically end in Tenafly?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tenafly typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Tenafly?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tenafly typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 244 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tenafly?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tenafly sees about 244 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 10, about 209 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tenafly?
The federal record around Tenafly runs heavier than most — 7,990 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (4,485), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Tenafly?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tenafly's scale — its 7a band and its 244-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tenafly'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 Tenafly’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Tenafly's own scale — its own ~244-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,935 acres it covers and 7,990 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tenafly's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tenafly's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 24 and the ~244-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7,990 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tenafly, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tenafly's boundary and the 2,935 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~244-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tenafly's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Tenaflylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tenafly's 2,935 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bergen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bergen 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 Bergen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tenafly's 2,935 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tenafly you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,935 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Tenafly-wide figureread your own land →