Bridgeport, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bridgeport, 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 Bridgeport 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 Bridgeport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bridgeport — the short answer
Bridgeport, New Jersey: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 127 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 127 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 8a is Bridgeport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bridgeport's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bridgeport
Each reading below is measured for Bridgeport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBridgeport runs about 255 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
MeasuredBridgeport sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Bridgeport is in
Bridgeport sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bridgeport's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Gloucester County is mostly Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bridgeport
Every plant below cleared Bridgeport's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bridgeport?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Bridgeport
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Bridgeport, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bridgeport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bridgeport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VWR INTERNATIONAL, LLCBrownfields · 250 ft
- COMMODORE BARRY BRIDGE PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- LOGAN TWPUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- COMMODORE BARRY BRIDGE MAINT YARDBrownfields · 900 ft
- ROLLINS ENVIRONMENTAL SVC NJ INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BRIDGEPORT AIRPORT FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- STRUCTURE 0824-153Brownfields · 1100 ft
- BRIDGEPORT BRIDGEHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BURLINGTON DC509Brownfields · 1400 ft
- NJDOT BRIDGEPORT MAINTENANCE YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 150166-- Bridgeport 2Nitrate · 1500 ft
- NJDOT BRIDGEPORT MAINTENANCE YARDBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bridgeport'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 Bridgeport.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bridgeport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bridgeport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bridgeport, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 43 sites within ~10 miles of Bridgeport. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Bridgeport
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 Bridgeport average
Your land is one point inside Bridgeport
Everything above resolves to Bridgeport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 127 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 Bridgeport Average
Bridgeport Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bridgeport
- ●One soil character for all of Bridgeport
- ●Frost dates read at Bridgeport's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bridgeport's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bridgeport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bridgeport, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bridgeport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bridgeport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bridgeport average
How we know this about Bridgeport
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 Bridgeport’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 Bridgeport
When does frost risk typically end in Bridgeport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bridgeport typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Bridgeport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bridgeport typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bridgeport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bridgeport sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 13, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bridgeport?
The federal record around Bridgeport runs heavier than most — 2,487 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,023), the nearest Brownfields 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 Bridgeport?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bridgeport's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bridgeport'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 Bridgeport’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bridgeport's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 127 acres it covers and 2,487 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bridgeport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bridgeport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 27 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,487 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bridgeport, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bridgeport's boundary and the 127 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bridgeport sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bridgeportlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bridgeport's 127 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gloucester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gloucester 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 Gloucester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bridgeport's 127 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bridgeport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 127 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Bridgeport-wide figureread your own land →
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