Ocean Grove, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
You’re in Southeastern Massachusetts
The low coastal plain of the South Coast — mild, moist, and worked for market vegetables and small orchards for generations. One of the gentler corners of the Massachusetts growing map.
Even in Ocean Grove, 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 Grove 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 Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ocean Grove — the short answer
Ocean Grove, Massachusetts: USDA zone 7a, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 424 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 424 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 Ocean Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ocean Grove's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ocean Grove
Each reading below is measured for Ocean Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOcean Grove runs about 237 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 Grove 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 Ocean Grove is in
Ocean Grove sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ocean Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bristol County.
What Grows in Ocean Grove
Every plant below cleared Ocean Grove's own zone 7a and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ocean Grove?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Grove
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Ocean Grove, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ocean Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ocean Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BELLENCOURT AUTO BODYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NJM SERVICE CTR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #2129Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS 2320 2129Brownfields · 1600 ft
- SWANSEA WATER DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SWANSEA & COLE MARINA CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Shell #615Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TILCON CAPALDI INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SHERRY CONSTRUCTION CORPBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MARCO 1 GASOLINE STATIONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BAKER TRACTOR CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ALDEN AUTOPARTS WAREHOUSE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ocean Grove'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 Grove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ocean Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ocean Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ocean Grove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ocean Grove — Superfund (20 sites) and Brownfields (748 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Ocean Grove
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 Grove average
Your land is one point inside Ocean Grove
Everything above resolves to Ocean Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 424 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 Grove Average
Ocean Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ocean Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Ocean Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Ocean Grove's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ocean Grove's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ocean Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ocean Grove, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ocean Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ocean Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ocean Grove average
How we know this about Ocean Grove
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 Grove’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 Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Ocean Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean Grove typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Ocean Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean Grove typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ocean Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ocean Grove sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Nov 5, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ocean Grove?
The federal record around Ocean Grove is a meaningful one — 1,520 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (748), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Grove?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ocean Grove's scale — its 7a band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ocean Grove'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 Grove’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ocean Grove's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 424 acres it covers and 1,520 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ocean Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ocean Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 19 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,520 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ocean Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ocean Grove's boundary and the 424 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ocean Grove's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ocean Grovelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ocean Grove's 424 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bristol County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bristol County
- The growing challenges every Massachusetts grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Massachusetts
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Bristol County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ocean Grove's 424 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ocean Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 424 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Grove-wide figureread your own land →