Cape May Point, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Cape May Point, 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 Cape May Point 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 Cape May Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cape May Point — the short answer
Cape May Point, New Jersey: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 189 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 189 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 Cape May Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cape May Point's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cape May Point
Each reading below is measured for Cape May Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCape May Point runs about 265 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCape May Point 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 Cape May Point is in
Cape May Point sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cape May Point's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cape May County.
What Grows in Cape May Point
Every plant below cleared Cape May Point's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cape May Point?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Cape May Point
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Cape May Point, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cape May Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cape May Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 090020-- Traffic Circle ObsNitrate · 450 ft
- CAPE MAY POINT GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CORAL AVENUE PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CAPE MAY POINT BORO WATEPFAS · 1300 ft
- 090019-- Lighthouse 1Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 090029-- Ind 1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 090028-- Ind 2Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- CAPE MAY TREATMENT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HARBISON WALKER CAPE MAY WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WILLOW CREEK FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- NJTA ENGINEERING DISTRICT P7Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- 090150-- West Cape May 1 ObsNitrate · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cape May Point'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 Cape May Point.
Total Sites
337
within ~10 miles of Cape May Point
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cape May Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cape May Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cape May Point, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cape May Point — PFAS (6 sites) and Superfund (7 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 Cape May Point
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 Cape May Point average
Your land is one point inside Cape May Point
Everything above resolves to Cape May Point as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 189 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 Cape May Point Average
Cape May Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cape May Point
- ●One soil character for all of Cape May Point
- ●Frost dates read at Cape May Point's scale: Mar 11 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cape May Point's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cape May Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cape May Point, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cape May Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cape May Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cape May Point average
How we know this about Cape May Point
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 Cape May Point’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 Cape May Point
When does frost risk typically end in Cape May Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cape May Point typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Cape May Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cape May Point typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cape May Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cape May Point sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 17, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cape May Point?
The federal record around Cape May Point is a meaningful one — 337 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (211), the nearest Nitrate 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 Cape May Point?
From about Nov 1 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 Dec 1 (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 Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cape May Point's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cape May Point'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 Cape May Point’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cape May Point's own scale — its own ~265-day season between 28°F freezes, the 189 acres it covers and 337 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cape May Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cape May Point's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Dec 1 and the ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 337 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cape May Point, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cape May Point's boundary and the 189 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cape May Point's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cape May Pointlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cape May Point's 189 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cape May County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cape May 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 Cape May County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cape May Point's 189 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cape May Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 189 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Cape May Point-wide figureread your own land →