Gloucester City, 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 Gloucester City, 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 Gloucester City 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 Gloucester City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gloucester City — the short answer
Gloucester City, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- 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
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Gloucester City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gloucester City's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gloucester City
Each reading below is measured for Gloucester City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGloucester City runs about 251 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
MeasuredGloucester City 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 Gloucester City is in
Gloucester City sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gloucester City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Camden County is mostly Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gloucester City
Every plant below cleared Gloucester City's own zone 7b and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gloucester City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (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. 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 Gloucester City
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Gloucester City, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gloucester City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gloucester City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- S F PEDRICK CONST CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BROOKLAWN WATER DEPARTMENTPFAS · 950 ft
- GLOUCESTER CITY W DEPTPFAS · 950 ft
- BUSS TRANSMISSION SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- STATION PHARMACYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- COFFEE CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MULTANI BROTHERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GLOUCESTER CITY BRIDGEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- GLOUCESTER COASTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CARPENTERS SQUAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 070211-- Well 2Nitrate · 1700 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #0864Brownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gloucester City'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 Gloucester City.
Total Sites
5,901
within ~10 miles of Gloucester City
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
123 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gloucester City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gloucester City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gloucester City, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 123 sites within ~10 miles of Gloucester City. 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 Gloucester City
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 Gloucester City average
Your land is one point inside Gloucester City
Everything above resolves to Gloucester City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Gloucester City Average
Gloucester City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Gloucester City
- ●One soil character for all of Gloucester City
- ●Frost dates read at Gloucester City's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gloucester City's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gloucester City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gloucester City, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gloucester City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gloucester City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gloucester City average
How we know this about Gloucester City
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 Gloucester City’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 Gloucester City
When does frost risk typically end in Gloucester City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gloucester City typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Gloucester City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gloucester City 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 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gloucester City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gloucester City sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 13, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gloucester City?
The federal record around Gloucester City runs heavier than most — 5,901 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,946), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Gloucester City?
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 Gloucester City's scale — its 7b band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gloucester City'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 Gloucester City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gloucester City's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,482 acres it covers and 5,901 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gloucester City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gloucester City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 27 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,901 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gloucester City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gloucester City's boundary and the 1,482 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gloucester City 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 Gloucester Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gloucester City's 1,482 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Camden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Camden 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 Camden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gloucester City's 1,482 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gloucester City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,482 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Gloucester City-wide figureread your own land →
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