Ocean View, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Ocean View, 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 Ocean View 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 Ocean View — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ocean View — the short answer
Ocean View, Delaware: USDA zone 7b, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- 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 7b is Ocean View's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ocean View's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ocean View
Each reading below is measured for Ocean View itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOcean View runs about 249 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
MeasuredOcean View 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 Ocean View is in
Ocean View sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ocean View's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sussex County.
What Grows in Ocean View
Every plant below cleared Ocean View's own zone 7b and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ocean View?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Ocean View
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Ocean View, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ocean View
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ocean View. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PETCO STORE #3781Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- Herbert SchaferUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- G A HASTINGS & ASSOCIATES - 102 CENTRAL AVE, OCEAN VIEWBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Lord Baltimore Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- US Plywood CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- LAND TECH - 118 ATLANTIC AVE, OCEAN VIEWBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- DelDOT Route 26 Right of WayUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DelDOT Route 26 Right of Way- Millville Fire CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DELDOT Right-of-Way - Rt 26Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Murrays Enterprises IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Kellam Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Banks Developments IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ocean View'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 Ocean View.
Total Sites
571
within ~10 miles of Ocean View
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ocean View
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ocean View
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ocean View, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ocean View — Nitrate (284 sites) and CAFO (9 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Ocean View
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 Ocean View average
Your land is one point inside Ocean View
Everything above resolves to Ocean View 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 Ocean View Average
Ocean View Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ocean View
- ●One soil character for all of Ocean View
- ●Frost dates read at Ocean View's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ocean View's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ocean View
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ocean View, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ocean View averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ocean View — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ocean View average
How we know this about Ocean View
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 Ocean View’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 Ocean View
When does frost risk typically end in Ocean View?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean View typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Ocean View?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean View typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ocean View?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ocean View sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 9, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ocean View?
The federal record around Ocean View is a meaningful one — 571 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (284), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ocean View?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ocean View's scale — its 7b band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ocean View'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 Ocean View’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ocean View's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,777 acres it covers and 571 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ocean View's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ocean View's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 23 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 571 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ocean View, the closest Brownfields record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ocean View's boundary and the 1,777 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ocean View's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ocean Viewlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ocean View's 1,777 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sussex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sussex County
- The growing challenges every Delaware grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Delaware
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Sussex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ocean View's 1,777 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ocean View you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,777 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.3 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 Ocean View-wide figureread your own land →