Woodcliff Lake, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Woodcliff Lake, 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 Woodcliff Lake 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 Woodcliff Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Woodcliff Lake — the short answer
Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Woodcliff Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodcliff Lake's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woodcliff Lake
Each reading below is measured for Woodcliff Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoodcliff Lake runs about 228 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
MeasuredWoodcliff Lake 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 Woodcliff Lake is in
Woodcliff Lake sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Woodcliff Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bergen County.
What Grows in Woodcliff Lake
Every plant below cleared Woodcliff Lake's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woodcliff Lake?
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 Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 Woodcliff Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Woodcliff Lake, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Woodcliff Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woodcliff Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PARK RIDGE WATER DEPTPFAS · 25 ft
- WOODCLIFF LAKE FRIENDLY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WOODCLIFF LAKE BORO DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 030346-- Bear Bk TWNitrate · 0.5 mi
- BMW OF NORTH AMERICA INC.Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- WOODCLIFF LAKE BOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FIREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BMW OF NORTH AMERICA LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BERGEN PERCHLORATE ION SITESuperfund · 0.8 mi
- PASCACK RP.,PARK RIDGE L.P.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PARK RIDGE BORO DPW FUEL DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 030010-- PW 5Nitrate · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodcliff Lake'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 Woodcliff Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woodcliff Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woodcliff Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woodcliff Lake, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 77 sites within ~10 miles of Woodcliff Lake. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Woodcliff Lake
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 Woodcliff Lake average
Your land is one point inside Woodcliff Lake
Everything above resolves to Woodcliff Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Woodcliff Lake Average
Woodcliff Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Woodcliff Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Woodcliff Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Woodcliff Lake's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodcliff Lake's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woodcliff Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodcliff Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodcliff Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodcliff Lake average
How we know this about Woodcliff Lake
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 Woodcliff Lake’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 Woodcliff Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Woodcliff Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodcliff Lake typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Woodcliff Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woodcliff Lake typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woodcliff Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodcliff Lake sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 30, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woodcliff Lake?
The federal record around Woodcliff Lake runs heavier than most — 3,275 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,946), the nearest PFAS 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 Woodcliff Lake?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Woodcliff Lake's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodcliff Lake'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 Woodcliff Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Woodcliff Lake's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,161 acres it covers and 3,275 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodcliff Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woodcliff Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 13 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,275 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woodcliff Lake, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woodcliff Lake's boundary and the 2,161 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Woodcliff Lake's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Woodcliff Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woodcliff Lake's 2,161 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 Woodcliff Lake's 2,161 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woodcliff Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,161 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Woodcliff Lake-wide figureread your own land →