North Wildwood, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Wildwood, 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 North Wildwood 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 North Wildwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Wildwood — the short answer
North Wildwood, 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 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- 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 North Wildwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Wildwood's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Wildwood
Each reading below is measured for North Wildwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Wildwood 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
MeasuredNorth Wildwood 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 North Wildwood is in
North Wildwood sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Wildwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cape May County.
What Grows in North Wildwood
Every plant below cleared North Wildwood'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 North Wildwood?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 North Wildwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from North Wildwood, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Wildwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Wildwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORTH WILDWOOD RESCUE SQUADUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- BAYFRONT BOAT BASINUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CREST SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CAPE TRUCK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- BROCKS REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SEA BREEZE DEVELOPMENT LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ANGLESEA FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 4009 11 NEW JERSEY AVENUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TREASURE ISLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 090104-- BlockNitrate · 1300 ft
- ST SIMEONS BY THE SEA CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SOUTH DOCK MARINA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Wildwood'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 North Wildwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Wildwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Wildwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Wildwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Wildwood — 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 North Wildwood
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 North Wildwood average
Your land is one point inside North Wildwood
Everything above resolves to North Wildwood 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 North Wildwood Average
North Wildwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across North Wildwood
- ●One soil character for all of North Wildwood
- ●Frost dates read at North Wildwood's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Wildwood's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Wildwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Wildwood, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Wildwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Wildwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Wildwood average
How we know this about North Wildwood
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 North Wildwood’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 North Wildwood
When does frost risk typically end in North Wildwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Wildwood typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in North Wildwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Wildwood typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Wildwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Wildwood sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 9, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Wildwood?
The federal record around North Wildwood is a meaningful one — 530 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (325), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 North Wildwood?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Wildwood's scale — its 7b band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Wildwood'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 North Wildwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Wildwood's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,104 acres it covers and 530 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Wildwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Wildwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 23 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 530 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Wildwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Wildwood's boundary and the 1,104 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Wildwood's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Wildwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Wildwood's 1,104 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 North Wildwood's 1,104 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Wildwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,104 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 North Wildwood-wide figureread your own land →