Barnegat, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Barnegat, 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 Barnegat 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 Barnegat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Barnegat — the short answer
Barnegat, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- 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
- ~242
- 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 Barnegat's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barnegat's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barnegat
Each reading below is measured for Barnegat itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBarnegat runs about 242 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
MeasuredBarnegat 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 Barnegat is in
Barnegat sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Barnegat's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ocean County.
What Grows in Barnegat
Every plant below cleared Barnegat's own zone 7b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barnegat?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Barnegat
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Barnegat, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Barnegat
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barnegat. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BARNEGAT TOWNSHIP SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CUMBERLAND GULF 126433Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- DELTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- OCEAN CNTY MOSQ EXTERM COMMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 290655-- DomNitrate · 1.0 mi
- ADVANCE AUTO PARTS # 8535Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- CECIL S COLLIS SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DEER RUN PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BRACKMAN MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SITE MANAGERS INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- WAWA FOOD MARKET 441Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 290737-- Bs-1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barnegat'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 Barnegat.
Total Sites
476
within ~10 miles of Barnegat
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barnegat
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barnegat
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barnegat, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Barnegat — PFAS (12 sites) and Nitrate (164 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Barnegat
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 Barnegat average
Your land is one point inside Barnegat
Everything above resolves to Barnegat 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 Barnegat Average
Barnegat Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Barnegat
- ●One soil character for all of Barnegat
- ●Frost dates read at Barnegat's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barnegat's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barnegat
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barnegat, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barnegat averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barnegat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barnegat average
How we know this about Barnegat
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 Barnegat’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 Barnegat
When does frost risk typically end in Barnegat?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barnegat typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Barnegat?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barnegat 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 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barnegat?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barnegat sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Nov 9, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barnegat?
The federal record around Barnegat is a meaningful one — 476 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (237), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Barnegat?
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 Barnegat's scale — its 7b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barnegat'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 Barnegat’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Barnegat's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,726 acres it covers and 476 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barnegat's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barnegat's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 23 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 476 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barnegat, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barnegat's boundary and the 1,726 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Barnegat's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Barnegatlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Barnegat's 1,726 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ocean County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ocean 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 Ocean County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barnegat's 1,726 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barnegat you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,726 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Barnegat-wide figureread your own land →
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