Avalon, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Avalon, 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 Avalon 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 Avalon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Avalon — the short answer
Avalon, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- 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
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Avalon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Avalon's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Avalon
Each reading below is measured for Avalon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAvalon runs about 245 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
MeasuredAvalon 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 Avalon is in
Avalon sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Avalon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cape May County.
What Grows in Avalon
Every plant below cleared Avalon's own zone 7b and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Avalon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (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 Avalon
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Avalon, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Avalon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Avalon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NJ BELL TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 39TH ST PUMPING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 090004-- Avalon PW 6Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 38TH ST WELL HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- AVALON WATER AND SEWERAGE UTILITIESPFAS · 0.7 mi
- AVALON PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 090002-- Avalon 2R-71/New 7Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 090005-- 5-76/New 8Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- SUNOCO 0004-6664Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CUMBERLAND GULF 122610Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 74TH ST SEWAGE PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- EXXON STORE 3-9644Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Avalon'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 Avalon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Avalon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Avalon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Avalon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Avalon — PFAS (5 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Avalon
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 Avalon average
Your land is one point inside Avalon
Everything above resolves to Avalon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Avalon Average
Avalon Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Avalon
- ●One soil character for all of Avalon
- ●Frost dates read at Avalon's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Avalon's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Avalon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Avalon, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Avalon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Avalon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Avalon average
How we know this about Avalon
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 Avalon’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 Avalon
When does frost risk typically end in Avalon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Avalon typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Avalon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Avalon 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 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Avalon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Avalon sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 6, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Avalon?
The federal record around Avalon is a meaningful one — 475 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (294), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Avalon?
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 Avalon's scale — its 7b band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Avalon'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 Avalon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Avalon's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,733 acres it covers and 475 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Avalon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Avalon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 20 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 475 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Avalon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Avalon's boundary and the 2,733 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Avalon's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Avalonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Avalon's 2,733 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cape May County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cape May 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 Cape May County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Avalon's 2,733 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Avalon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,733 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Avalon-wide figureread your own land →