Atlantic City, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Atlantic City, 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 Atlantic City 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 Atlantic City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Atlantic City — the short answer
Atlantic City, New Jersey: USDA zone 8a, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 8a is Atlantic City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Atlantic City's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Atlantic City
Each reading below is measured for Atlantic City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAtlantic City runs about 247 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
MeasuredAtlantic City sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Atlantic City is in
Atlantic City sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Atlantic City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Atlantic County.
What Grows in Atlantic City
Every plant below cleared Atlantic City's own zone 8a and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Atlantic City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 Atlantic City
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Atlantic City, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Atlantic City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Atlantic City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ATLANTIC CITY MUAPFAS · 25 ft
- RESORTS ATLANTIC CITYPFAS · 25 ft
- BALLYS PARK PLACE CASINOPFAS · 25 ft
- ATLANTIC COUNTY UTILITIES AUTHORITY POTWBrownfields · 650 ft
- ATLANTIC CNTY UTILITIES AUTHORITY WWTFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ATLANTIC CITY GASOLINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- NUS INC / NATIONAL LINEN SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- AMOCO STATION (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PARCEL 45 ATL CITY BRIG CON ROWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- PERONA BROS. TIRE FIRESuperfund · 2600 ft
- ATLANTIC CITY PUBLIC PARKING GARAGE #1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NEW YORK AVENUE FORCE MAINSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Atlantic City'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 Atlantic City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Atlantic City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Atlantic City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Atlantic City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Atlantic City — Superfund (16 sites) and PFAS (10 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Atlantic City
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 Atlantic City average
Your land is one point inside Atlantic City
Everything above resolves to Atlantic City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Atlantic City Average
Atlantic City Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Atlantic City
- ●One soil character for all of Atlantic City
- ●Frost dates read at Atlantic City's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Atlantic City's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Atlantic City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Atlantic City, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Atlantic City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Atlantic City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Atlantic City average
How we know this about Atlantic City
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 Atlantic City’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 Atlantic City
When does frost risk typically end in Atlantic City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Atlantic City typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Atlantic City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Atlantic City typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Atlantic City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Atlantic City sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 11, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Atlantic City?
The federal record around Atlantic City runs heavier than most — 924 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (604), 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 Atlantic City?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Atlantic City's scale — its 8a band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Atlantic City'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 Atlantic City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Atlantic City's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,886 acres it covers and 924 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Atlantic City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Atlantic City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 25 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 924 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Atlantic City, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Atlantic City's boundary and the 6,886 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Atlantic City's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Atlantic Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Atlantic City's 6,886 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 Atlantic City's 6,886 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Atlantic City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,886 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 Atlantic City-wide figureread your own land →
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