Barnegat Light, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Barnegat Light, 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 Light 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 Light — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Barnegat Light — the short answer
Barnegat Light, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 532 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 532 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 Light's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barnegat Light's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barnegat Light
Each reading below is measured for Barnegat Light itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBarnegat Light runs about 252 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 Light 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 Light is in
Barnegat Light sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Barnegat Light's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ocean County.
What Grows in Barnegat Light
Every plant below cleared Barnegat Light's own zone 7b and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barnegat Light?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Light
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Barnegat Light, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Barnegat Light
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barnegat Light. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BARNEGAT LIGHT WATER DEPPFAS · 25 ft
- BRENNAN FUEL LLC DBA GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DARTSWIFTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BARNEGAT LIGHT BOROUGH GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BARNEGAT LIGHT YACHT BASINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- VIKING VILLAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 290002-- Barnegat Light PW 3Nitrate · 2000 ft
- 290004-- PW 2Nitrate · 2000 ft
- 290607-- Barnegat Light PW 4Nitrate · 2500 ft
- ED'S BOAT RENTALSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BARNEGAT RECREATIONAL FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BOBBIES BOAT AND MOTOR RENTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barnegat Light'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 Light.
Total Sites
380
within ~10 miles of Barnegat Light
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barnegat Light
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barnegat Light
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barnegat Light, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Barnegat Light — PFAS (6 sites) and Nitrate (124 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 Light
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 Light average
Your land is one point inside Barnegat Light
Everything above resolves to Barnegat Light as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 532 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 Light Average
Barnegat Light Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Barnegat Light
- ●One soil character for all of Barnegat Light
- ●Frost dates read at Barnegat Light's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barnegat Light's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barnegat Light
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barnegat Light, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barnegat Light averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barnegat Light — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barnegat Light average
How we know this about Barnegat Light
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 Light’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 Light
When does frost risk typically end in Barnegat Light?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barnegat Light typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Barnegat Light?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barnegat Light typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barnegat Light?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barnegat Light sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 15, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barnegat Light?
The federal record around Barnegat Light is a meaningful one — 380 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (197), the nearest PFAS 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 Light?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barnegat Light's scale — its 7b band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barnegat Light'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 Light’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Barnegat Light's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 532 acres it covers and 380 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barnegat Light's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barnegat Light's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 29 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 380 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barnegat Light, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barnegat Light's boundary and the 532 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Barnegat Light's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Barnegat Lightlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Barnegat Light's 532 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 Light's 532 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barnegat Light you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 532 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 Barnegat Light-wide figureread your own land →
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