Ocean Gate, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ocean Gate, 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 Gate 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 Gate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ocean Gate — the short answer
Ocean Gate, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 288 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 288 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 Gate's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ocean Gate's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ocean Gate
Each reading below is measured for Ocean Gate itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOcean Gate runs about 236 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 Gate 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 Gate is in
Ocean Gate sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ocean Gate's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ocean County.
What Grows in Ocean Gate
Every plant below cleared Ocean Gate's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ocean Gate?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Gate
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Ocean Gate, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ocean Gate
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ocean Gate. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT&T COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- AT&T OCEAN GATE RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 290616-- Ocean Gate PW 2Nitrate · 1400 ft
- 290508-- PW 3Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 290809-- PW 4Nitrate · 1700 ft
- MIKE BONA SERVICE STATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- OCEAN GATE YACHT CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 290718-- Bayview Ave 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- BERKELEY WATER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AUTHUR NEWMAN INDUSTRIAL PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- OCEAN GATE YACHT BASIN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- OCEAN CNTY UTILITIES AUTH CPS13Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ocean Gate'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 Gate.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ocean Gate
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ocean Gate
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ocean Gate, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ocean Gate — Superfund (16 sites) and Nitrate (320 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
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 Gate
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 Gate average
Your land is one point inside Ocean Gate
Everything above resolves to Ocean Gate as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 288 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 Gate Average
Ocean Gate Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ocean Gate
- ●One soil character for all of Ocean Gate
- ●Frost dates read at Ocean Gate's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ocean Gate's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ocean Gate
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ocean Gate, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ocean Gate averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ocean Gate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ocean Gate average
How we know this about Ocean Gate
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 Gate’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 Gate
When does frost risk typically end in Ocean Gate?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean Gate typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Ocean Gate?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean Gate typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ocean Gate?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ocean Gate sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Nov 5, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ocean Gate?
The federal record around Ocean Gate runs heavier than most — 1,020 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (520), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ocean Gate?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ocean Gate's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ocean Gate'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 Gate’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ocean Gate's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 288 acres it covers and 1,020 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ocean Gate's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ocean Gate's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 19 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,020 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ocean Gate, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ocean Gate's boundary and the 288 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ocean Gate's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ocean Gatelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ocean Gate's 288 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 Gate's 288 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ocean Gate you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 288 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Gate-wide figureread your own land →