Bradley Beach, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Bradley Beach, 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 Bradley Beach 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 Bradley Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bradley Beach — the short answer
Bradley Beach, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 390 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 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 390 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 Bradley Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bradley Beach's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bradley Beach
Each reading below is measured for Bradley Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBradley Beach 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
MeasuredBradley Beach 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 Bradley Beach is in
Bradley Beach sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bradley Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monmouth County.
What Grows in Bradley Beach
Every plant below cleared Bradley Beach's own zone 7b and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bradley Beach?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 24 — 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 Bradley Beach
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Bradley Beach, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bradley Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bradley Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KIRSCH HOLDING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SERVICE STATION (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- KRAUSER'S STORE (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MUNICIPAL COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BRADLEY BEACH FIREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WILLI FOREIGN CAR SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- AUTOTEK INC (BRADLEY AMOCO)Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS 2911Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SPEEDWAY 3452Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WASTE MANAGEMENT OF NEW JERSEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BRADLEY BEACH MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PUBLIC WORKS YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bradley Beach'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 Bradley Beach.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bradley Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bradley Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bradley Beach, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bradley Beach — Superfund (21 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (938 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bradley Beach
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 Bradley Beach average
Your land is one point inside Bradley Beach
Everything above resolves to Bradley Beach as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 390 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 Bradley Beach Average
Bradley Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Bradley Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Bradley Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Bradley Beach's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bradley Beach's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bradley Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bradley Beach, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bradley Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bradley Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bradley Beach average
How we know this about Bradley Beach
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 Bradley Beach’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 Bradley Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Bradley Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bradley Beach 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 Bradley Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bradley Beach typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bradley Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bradley Beach sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 10, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bradley Beach?
The federal record around Bradley Beach runs heavier than most — 1,360 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (938), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Bradley Beach?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bradley Beach's scale — its 7b band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bradley Beach'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 Bradley Beach’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bradley Beach's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 390 acres it covers and 1,360 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bradley Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bradley Beach's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 24 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,360 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bradley Beach, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bradley Beach's boundary and the 390 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bradley Beach's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bradley Beachlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bradley Beach's 390 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monmouth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monmouth 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 Monmouth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bradley Beach's 390 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bradley Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 390 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Bradley Beach-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyBradley Beach sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides