Ocean City, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ocean 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 Ocean 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 Ocean City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ocean City — the short answer
Ocean City, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 7b is Ocean City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ocean City's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ocean City
Each reading below is measured for Ocean City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOcean City 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
MeasuredOcean 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 Ocean City is in
Ocean City sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ocean City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cape May County.
What Grows in Ocean City
Every plant below cleared Ocean City'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 Ocean City?
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 Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Ocean City
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Ocean City, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ocean City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ocean City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 20TH ST PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 090110-- Shore div 12Nitrate · 1800 ft
- OCEAN CITY MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- NJ AMERICAN WATER - OCEAN CITYPFAS · 0.6 mi
- JOHN KENNEDY CHEV & OLDS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #0752Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- 090109-- Shore div 9/SealedNitrate · 0.7 mi
- 16TH ST & HAVEN AVEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 1501 HAVEN AVENUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WALGREENS 17934Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- ANDERSON ELECTRICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SHERWIN WILLIAMS CO #5015Brownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ocean 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 Ocean City.
Total Sites
639
within ~10 miles of Ocean City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ocean City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ocean City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ocean City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ocean City — PFAS (7 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ocean 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 Ocean City average
Your land is one point inside Ocean City
Everything above resolves to Ocean City 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 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 Ocean City Average
Ocean City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ocean City
- ●One soil character for all of Ocean City
- ●Frost dates read at Ocean City's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ocean City's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ocean City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ocean City, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ocean City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ocean City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ocean City average
How we know this about Ocean 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 Ocean 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 Ocean City
When does frost risk typically end in Ocean City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean City typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Ocean City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean City typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ocean City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ocean City sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 6, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ocean City?
The federal record around Ocean City is a meaningful one — 639 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (405), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 City?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ocean City's scale — its 7b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ocean 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 Ocean City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ocean City's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,322 acres it covers and 639 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ocean City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ocean City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 20 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 639 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ocean City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ocean City's boundary and the 4,322 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 Ocean City's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ocean Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ocean City's 4,322 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 Ocean City's 4,322 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ocean 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 4,322 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 Ocean City-wide figureread your own land →