Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cliffwood 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 Cliffwood 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 Cliffwood Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cliffwood Beach — the short answer
Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 580 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- 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
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 580 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 Cliffwood Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cliffwood Beach's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cliffwood Beach
Each reading below is measured for Cliffwood Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCliffwood Beach runs about 243 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
MeasuredCliffwood 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 Cliffwood Beach is in
Cliffwood Beach sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cliffwood Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monmouth County.
What Grows in Cliffwood Beach
Every plant below cleared Cliffwood Beach's own zone 7b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cliffwood Beach?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Cliffwood Beach
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Cliffwood Beach, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cliffwood Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cliffwood Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ABERDEEN TWP PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CLIFFSIDE HEALTH CARE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ROCCO'S AUTO BAYSHORE TRANSMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FORMER KEYPORT TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WAWA FOOD MARKET #976Brownfields · 2300 ft
- ABERDEEN LIGHT TRUCK SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- EXXON STORE 3-7777Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- EXXON 3-5351Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- UNITED STAIRS CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CLIFFWOOD STATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ADVANCED TIRE & AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TWIN TOWERS MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cliffwood 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 Cliffwood Beach.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cliffwood Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cliffwood Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cliffwood Beach, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 47 sites within ~10 miles of Cliffwood Beach. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Cliffwood 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 Cliffwood Beach average
Your land is one point inside Cliffwood Beach
Everything above resolves to Cliffwood Beach as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 580 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 Cliffwood Beach Average
Cliffwood Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Cliffwood Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Cliffwood Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Cliffwood Beach's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cliffwood Beach's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cliffwood Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cliffwood Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cliffwood Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cliffwood Beach average
How we know this about Cliffwood 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 Cliffwood 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 Cliffwood Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Cliffwood Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cliffwood Beach typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Cliffwood Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cliffwood 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 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cliffwood Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cliffwood Beach sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Nov 10, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cliffwood Beach?
The federal record around Cliffwood Beach runs heavier than most — 2,508 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,334), 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 Cliffwood 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 Cliffwood Beach's scale — its 7b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cliffwood 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 Cliffwood Beach’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cliffwood Beach's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 580 acres it covers and 2,508 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cliffwood Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cliffwood Beach's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 24 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,508 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cliffwood Beach, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cliffwood Beach's boundary and the 580 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cliffwood Beach's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cliffwood Beachlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cliffwood Beach's 580 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 Cliffwood Beach's 580 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cliffwood 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 580 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 Cliffwood Beach-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyCliffwood Beach sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides