Brigantine, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Brigantine, 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 Brigantine 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 Brigantine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brigantine — the short answer
Brigantine, New Jersey: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- 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
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Brigantine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brigantine's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brigantine
Each reading below is measured for Brigantine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrigantine 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
MeasuredBrigantine 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 Brigantine is in
Brigantine sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brigantine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Atlantic County.
What Grows in Brigantine
Every plant below cleared Brigantine'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 Brigantine?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Brigantine
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Brigantine, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brigantine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brigantine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRIGANTINE GOLF LINKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JERSEY STATE MARINE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CITY OF BRIGANTINE WATER TOWERBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 010041-- PW 1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- NJ BELL TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BRIGANTINE CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NORTH POINT MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BRIGANTINE WATER DEPARTMENTPFAS · 1.0 mi
- 010042-- 2-14Th StNitrate · 1.2 mi
- PAULS TRUE VALUE HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CUMBERLAND GULF #122666Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #7096Brownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brigantine'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 Brigantine.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brigantine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brigantine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brigantine, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Brigantine — PFAS (7 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Brigantine
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 Brigantine average
Your land is one point inside Brigantine
Everything above resolves to Brigantine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 city 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 Brigantine Average
Brigantine Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Brigantine
- ●One soil character for all of Brigantine
- ●Frost dates read at Brigantine's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brigantine's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brigantine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brigantine, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brigantine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brigantine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brigantine average
How we know this about Brigantine
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Brigantine’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Brigantine
When does frost risk typically end in Brigantine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brigantine typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Brigantine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brigantine 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 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brigantine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brigantine sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 15, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brigantine?
The federal record around Brigantine is a meaningful one — 662 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (440), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles 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 Brigantine?
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 Brigantine's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brigantine'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 Brigantine’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brigantine's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,175 acres it covers and 662 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brigantine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brigantine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 29 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 662 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brigantine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brigantine's boundary and the 4,175 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brigantine's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brigantinelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brigantine's 4,175 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Atlantic County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Atlantic 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 Atlantic County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brigantine's 4,175 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brigantine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,175 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Brigantine-wide figureread your own land →
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