Holiday City South, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Holiday City South, 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 Holiday City South 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 Holiday City South — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Holiday City South — the short answer
Holiday City South, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 7a is Holiday City South's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holiday City South's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Holiday City South
Each reading below is measured for Holiday City South itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHoliday City South runs about 206 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
MeasuredHoliday City South sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Holiday City South is in
Holiday City South sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Holiday City South's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ocean County.
What Grows in Holiday City South
Every plant below cleared Holiday City South's own zone 7a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Holiday City South?
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 Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Holiday City South
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Holiday City South, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Holiday City South
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Holiday City South. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 291214-- IrrNitrate · 1500 ft
- 290928-- PW 34Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- RF DOSS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 291213-- IrrNitrate · 0.8 mi
- DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DELTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PARCEL 2R182Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MOBIL SERVICE STATION 12AFKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 617 ROUTE 37 WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CARDINAL WM PENNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LUKOIL #57280Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- NJDOT - LAKEWOOD FACILITYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Holiday City South'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 Holiday City South.
Total Sites
1,351
within ~10 miles of Holiday City South
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
23 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Holiday City South
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Holiday City South
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Holiday City South, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Holiday City South — Nitrate (490 sites) and Superfund (23 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Holiday City South
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 Holiday City South average
Your land is one point inside Holiday City South
Everything above resolves to Holiday City South 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 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 Holiday City South Average
Holiday City South Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Holiday City South
- ●One soil character for all of Holiday City South
- ●Frost dates read at Holiday City South's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holiday City South's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Holiday City South
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holiday City South, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holiday City South averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holiday City South — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holiday City South average
How we know this about Holiday City South
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 Holiday City South’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 Holiday City South
When does frost risk typically end in Holiday City South?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holiday City South typically lands around Apr 10, 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 May 1.
When is the first frost in Holiday City South?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Holiday City South typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Holiday City South?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holiday City South sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 19, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holiday City South?
The federal record around Holiday City South runs heavier than most — 1,351 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (619), the nearest Nitrate 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 Holiday City South?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Holiday City South's scale — its 7a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holiday City South'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 Holiday City South’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Holiday City South's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,203 acres it covers and 1,351 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holiday City South's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Holiday City South's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 2 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,351 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Holiday City South, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Holiday City South's boundary and the 1,203 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Holiday City South's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Holiday City Southlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Holiday City South's 1,203 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ocean County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ocean 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 Ocean County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Holiday City South's 1,203 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Holiday City South you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,203 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Holiday City South-wide figureread your own land →