What Grows in Ocean View, New Jersey

USDA Zones 7b · 2K acres

Ocean View, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.

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.

Score your parcel · free

Even in Ocean View, 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 View 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 View — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.

No card required · your full report in seconds

Ocean View — the short answer

Ocean View, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.

USDA zone
7b
USDA PHZM 2023
Last hard freeze (28°F)
Mar 31
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
First hard freeze (28°F)
Nov 15
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
Days between freezes
~229
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
Town area
2K 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

7b7b
3a (Cold)13b (Hot)

Zone 7b is Ocean View's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ocean View's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.

Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.

What this means for growing in Ocean View

Each reading below is measured for Ocean View itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.

Season length

Measured

Ocean View runs about 229 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

Measured

Ocean View 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 View is in

Ocean View sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ocean View's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cape May County.

What that means for soil

What Grows in Ocean View

Every plant below cleared Ocean View's own zone 7b and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.

cabbage, photograph
Growing cabbage in New JerseyZones 2–11Ocean View's 7b — 5 zones of cold margin.
prickly pear, photograph
New Jersey prickly pear guideZones 5–10Ocean View's 7b — 2 zones of cold margin.
California poppy, photograph
California poppy in New JerseyZones 6–10Ocean View's 7b — 1 zone of cold margin.
collard greens, photograph
Collard greens: New Jersey growing notesZones 2–11Ocean View's 7b — 5 zones of cold margin.
fig, photograph
Growing fig in New JerseyZones 6–10Ocean View's 7b — 1 zone of cold margin.
lavender, photograph
New Jersey lavender guideZones 5–8Ocean View's 7b — 2 zones of cold margin.
garlic, photograph
Garlic in New JerseyZones 2–10Ocean View's 7b — 5 zones of cold margin.
grape, photograph
Grape: New Jersey growing notesZones 6–9Ocean View's 7b — 1 zone of cold margin.
Turkish rocket, photograph
Growing turkish rocket in New JerseyOcean View's 229 days clear the ~90 it needs.
kale, photograph
New Jersey kale guideZones 2–11Ocean View's 7b — 5 zones of cold margin.
hazelnut, photograph
Hazelnut in New JerseyZones 4–9Ocean View's 7b — 3 zones of cold margin.
lentil, photograph
Lentil: New Jersey growing notesZones 2–11Ocean View's 229 days clear the ~70 it needs.
pawpaw, photograph
Growing pawpaw in New JerseyZones 5–9Ocean View's 7b — 2 zones of cold margin.
okra, photograph
New Jersey okra guideZones 2–12Ocean View's 229 days clear the ~50 it needs.
potato, photograph
Potato in New JerseyZones 2–11Ocean View's 7b — 5 zones of cold margin.
iris, photograph
Iris: New Jersey growing notesZones 3–10Ocean View's 7b — 4 zones of cold margin.
sunflower, photograph
Growing sunflower in New JerseyZones 2–11Ocean View's 229 days clear the ~70 it needs.
Apache plume, photograph
New Jersey apache plume guideZones 5–11Ocean View's 7b — 2 zones of cold margin.
hops, photograph
Hops in New JerseyZones 3–8Ocean View's 7b — 4 zones of cold margin.
hosta, photograph
Hosta: New Jersey growing notesZones 3–8Ocean View's 7b — 4 zones of cold margin.
French marigold, photograph
Growing french marigold in New JerseyOcean View's 229 days clear the ~50 it needs.
holly, photograph
New Jersey holly guideZones 5–11Ocean View's 7b — 2 zones of cold margin.
Virginia creeper, photograph
Virginia creeper in New JerseyZones 3–9Ocean View's 7b — 4 zones of cold margin.
tulip, photograph
Tulip: New Jersey growing notesZones 6–8Ocean View's 7b — 1 zone of cold margin.
Douglas fir, photograph
Growing douglas fir in New JerseyZones 4–10Ocean View's 7b — 3 zones of cold margin.
Ethiopian mustard, photograph
New Jersey ethiopian mustard guideZones 4–10Ocean View's 7b — 3 zones of cold margin.
Kentucky bluegrass, botanical illustration
Kentucky bluegrass in New JerseyZones 2–7Ocean View's 7b — 5 zones of cold margin.
western red cedar, photograph
Western red cedar: New Jersey growing notesZones 4–10Ocean View's 7b — 3 zones of cold margin.
Japanese millet, photograph
Growing japanese millet in New JerseyZones 5–10Ocean View's 229 days clear the ~45 it needs.
ajuga, photograph
New Jersey ajuga guideZones 5–11Ocean View's 7b — 2 zones of cold margin.

Is it too late to plant in Ocean View?

Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.

Documented around Ocean View

Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Ocean View, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.

What's on the federal record near Ocean View

Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ocean View. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.

  1. PIPE TOWERS INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
  2. OCEAN VIEW FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
  3. RESORT CAMPGROUND CORP @ S JERSEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
  4. VACANT BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
  5. FAMILY AMBULANCE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
  6. SEAVILLE AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
  7. 090323-- MW-2 Gracetown Rd 1989Nitrate · 1.7 mi
  8. 090377-- 1988 DomNitrate · 1.7 mi
  9. J P COLLINS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
  10. OCEAN VIEW RIGGINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
  11. S SEAVILLE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
  12. SANDRA T STRUBLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi

6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map

Measured from Ocean View'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 View.

Total Sites

408

within ~10 miles of Ocean View

Risk Level

Elevated

Highest-severity

4 Superfund sites

Severity Distribution

within ~10 miles of Ocean View

High3Moderate181Low224

Highest-Severity Sites

Avalon Water and Sewerage Utilities
PFAS Sampling · PFAS Detected
Nj American Water - Ocean City
PFAS Sampling · PFAS Detected
Williams Property
Superfund · Superfund NPL
090002-- Avalon 2R-71/New 7
Nitrate Monitoring · Well
090002-- Avalon 2R-71/New 7
Nitrate Monitoring · Well

A note from Gnorman

What an experienced grower watches for around here

In and around Ocean View, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 146 sites within ~10 miles of Ocean View. 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.

Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).

Free Report

Check your specific parcel in Ocean View

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 View average

Your land is one point inside Ocean View

Everything above resolves to Ocean View as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 View Average

Ocean View Average

  • USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ocean View
  • One soil character for all of Ocean View
  • Frost dates read at Ocean View's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 15

YOUR Parcel

  • Your exact zone, not Ocean View's 7b
  • Your SSURGO soil type & pH
  • Your sun exposure, cast in 3D

See MY Growing Report

Free Report

Read your specific parcel in Ocean View

Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ocean View, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.

Three things about your lot that Ocean View averages can't show:

Your soil pHYour frost-free days — Ocean View averages 229Your sun & shade

We read public map data around Ocean View — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.

25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ocean View average

How we know this about Ocean View

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 View’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 View

When does frost risk typically end in Ocean View?

The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean View typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.

When is the first frost in Ocean View?

The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean View typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.

How long is the growing season in Ocean View?

Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ocean View sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Nov 1, about 194 days.

Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ocean View?

The federal record around Ocean View is a meaningful one — 408 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (207), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 View?

From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.

Everything above is measured at Ocean View's scale — its 7b band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ocean View'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 View’s own scale

7 of the readings below were taken at Ocean View's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,860 acres it covers and 408 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.

Measured here

  • Ocean View's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
  • Ocean View's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 15 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
  • 408 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ocean View, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
  • Ocean View's boundary and the 1,860 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
  • Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
  • The ecoregion at Ocean View's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
  • A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ocean Viewlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice

Inherited from a wider read

  • Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ocean View's 1,860 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 View's 1,860 acreswhy one lot differs from the next
  • Which side of Ocean View you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,860 acresreading your own microclimate
  • How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 View-wide figureread your own land
The next step finer is your own address