Absecon, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Absecon, 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 Absecon 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 Absecon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Absecon — the short answer
Absecon, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Absecon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Absecon's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Absecon
Each reading below is measured for Absecon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAbsecon runs about 238 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
MeasuredAbsecon 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 Absecon is in
Absecon sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Absecon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Atlantic County.
What Grows in Absecon
Every plant below cleared Absecon's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Absecon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 20 — 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 Absecon
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Absecon, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Absecon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Absecon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ABSECON MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BP ABSECONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SAFETY BUS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- NISHAN INVESTMENT LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HOME DEPOT STORE 0975Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BINDRA INVESTMENTS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ART MERRILL MARINE FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- UHAUL 813048Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- T&R LEASING LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- RT 30 SECTION 6A AND 5EUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- JIFFY LUBE 648Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- HOME DEPOT INC #975Brownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Absecon'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 Absecon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Absecon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Absecon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Absecon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Absecon — Superfund (18 sites) and PFAS (10 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Absecon
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 Absecon average
Your land is one point inside Absecon
Everything above resolves to Absecon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 city 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 Absecon Average
Absecon Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Absecon
- ●One soil character for all of Absecon
- ●Frost dates read at Absecon's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Absecon's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Absecon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Absecon, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Absecon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Absecon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Absecon average
How we know this about Absecon
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Absecon’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Absecon
When does frost risk typically end in Absecon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Absecon 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 Absecon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Absecon typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Absecon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Absecon sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Nov 6, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Absecon?
The federal record around Absecon runs heavier than most — 977 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (602), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Absecon?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Absecon's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Absecon'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 Absecon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Absecon's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,540 acres it covers and 977 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Absecon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Absecon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 20 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 977 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Absecon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Absecon's boundary and the 3,540 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Absecon's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Abseconlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Absecon's 3,540 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Atlantic County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Atlantic 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 Atlantic County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Absecon's 3,540 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Absecon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,540 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Absecon-wide figureread your own land →
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