Beachwood, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Beachwood, 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 Beachwood 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 Beachwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beachwood — the short answer
Beachwood, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- 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 7a is Beachwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beachwood's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beachwood
Each reading below is measured for Beachwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeachwood runs about 219 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
MeasuredBeachwood sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Beachwood is in
Beachwood sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beachwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ocean County.
What Grows in Beachwood
Every plant below cleared Beachwood's own zone 7a and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beachwood?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Beachwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Beachwood, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Beachwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beachwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEACHWOOD WATER DEPTPFAS · 0 ft
- 291071-- PW 6Nitrate · 950 ft
- BEACHWOOD FIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BEACHWOOD SEWERAGE AUTHORITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 290013-- PW 4Nitrate · 1400 ft
- 290578-- PW 5Nitrate · 1500 ft
- PUBLIC WORKS YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BEACHWOOD/BERKELEY WELLSSuperfund · 2000 ft
- 290055-- PW 17Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 291072-- 38 Holly Pump StaNitrate · 0.7 mi
- AMERICAN CUSTOM FABRICATORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SOUTH T R PUMPING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beachwood'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 Beachwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beachwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beachwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beachwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Beachwood — Nitrate (402 sites) and Superfund (19 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Beachwood
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 Beachwood average
Your land is one point inside Beachwood
Everything above resolves to Beachwood 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 Beachwood Average
Beachwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Beachwood
- ●One soil character for all of Beachwood
- ●Frost dates read at Beachwood's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beachwood's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beachwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beachwood, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beachwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beachwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beachwood average
How we know this about Beachwood
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 Beachwood’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 Beachwood
When does frost risk typically end in Beachwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beachwood typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Beachwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beachwood typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beachwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beachwood sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 27, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beachwood?
The federal record around Beachwood runs heavier than most — 1,128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (530), 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 Beachwood?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Beachwood's scale — its 7a band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beachwood'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 Beachwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Beachwood's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,768 acres it covers and 1,128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beachwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beachwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 10 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beachwood, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beachwood's boundary and the 1,768 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beachwood's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Beachwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beachwood's 1,768 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 Beachwood's 1,768 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beachwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,768 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 Beachwood-wide figureread your own land →