Ocean Acres, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Ocean Acres, 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 Ocean Acres 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 Ocean Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ocean Acres — the short answer
Ocean Acres, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Ocean Acres's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ocean Acres's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ocean Acres
Each reading below is measured for Ocean Acres itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOcean Acres runs about 226 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
MeasuredOcean Acres 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 Ocean Acres is in
Ocean Acres sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ocean Acres's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ocean County.
What Grows in Ocean Acres
Every plant below cleared Ocean Acres's own zone 7a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ocean Acres?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 Ocean Acres
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Ocean Acres, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ocean Acres
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ocean Acres. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 291275-- Suscp03 DomNitrate · 0.8 mi
- CEDAR ENERGY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 290765-- Fawn Lakes 1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- SOUTHERN OCEAN CNTY HOSPITALBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- 291656-- HospitalNitrate · 1.5 mi
- HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH SOUTHERN OCEAN MEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BARNEGAT TWP WATER SEWERPFAS · 1.7 mi
- LIGHTHOUSE MARINA PARTNERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- AT&T COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- NJ BELL TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- NATIONAL REALTY & DEVELOP CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- BARNEGAT TOLLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ocean Acres'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 Ocean Acres.
Total Sites
468
within ~10 miles of Ocean Acres
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ocean Acres
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ocean Acres
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ocean Acres, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ocean Acres — PFAS (9 sites) and Nitrate (156 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ocean Acres
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 Ocean Acres average
Your land is one point inside Ocean Acres
Everything above resolves to Ocean Acres as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Ocean Acres Average
Ocean Acres Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ocean Acres
- ●One soil character for all of Ocean Acres
- ●Frost dates read at Ocean Acres's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ocean Acres's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ocean Acres
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ocean Acres, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ocean Acres averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ocean Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ocean Acres average
How we know this about Ocean Acres
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 Ocean Acres’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 Ocean Acres
When does frost risk typically end in Ocean Acres?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean Acres typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Ocean Acres?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean Acres typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ocean Acres?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ocean Acres sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 30, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ocean Acres?
The federal record around Ocean Acres is a meaningful one — 468 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (237), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles 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 Ocean Acres?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ocean Acres's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ocean Acres'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 Ocean Acres’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ocean Acres's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,729 acres it covers and 468 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ocean Acres's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ocean Acres's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 13 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 468 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ocean Acres, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ocean Acres's boundary and the 3,729 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ocean Acres's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ocean Acreslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ocean Acres's 3,729 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 Ocean Acres's 3,729 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ocean Acres you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,729 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Ocean Acres-wide figureread your own land →
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