Surf City, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Surf 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 Surf 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 Surf City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Surf City — the short answer
Surf City, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 476 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 476 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 Surf City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Surf City's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Surf City's own 30-year record measures about 253 days between 28°F killing freezes — 38 days longer than Ocean County's ~215. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Surf City's ~253-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Surf City
Each reading below is measured for Surf City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSurf City runs about 253 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
MeasuredSurf 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 Surf City is in
Surf City sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Surf City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ocean County.
What Grows in Surf City
Every plant below cleared Surf City's own zone 7b and its 253-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Surf City?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Surf City
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Surf City, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Surf City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Surf City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 290560-- PW 4Nitrate · 1700 ft
- SURF CITY BOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ODELL SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 290561-- Surf City PW 5Nitrate · 1900 ft
- SICO #839Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- LONG BEACH ISLAND GRADE SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- WALT SMITH'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SURF CITY MARINA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SPORTSMAN'S MARINA GEORGE'S BOAT RENTALSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ETHEL JACOBSEN SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- OCEAN CNTY UTILITIES AUTH SPS-5Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BEACH HAVEN AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Surf 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 Surf City.
Total Sites
405
within ~10 miles of Surf City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Surf City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Surf City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Surf City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Surf City — PFAS (9 sites) and Nitrate (116 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 Surf 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 Surf City average
Your land is one point inside Surf City
Everything above resolves to Surf City as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Surf City Average
Surf City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Surf City
- ●One soil character for all of Surf City
- ●Frost dates read at Surf City's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Surf City's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Surf City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Surf City, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Surf City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Surf City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Surf City average
How we know this about Surf City
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 Surf 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 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 Surf City
When does frost risk typically end in Surf City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Surf City typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Surf City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Surf City typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 253 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Surf City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Surf City sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 15, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Surf City?
The federal record around Surf City is a meaningful one — 405 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (232), the nearest Nitrate 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 Surf City?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Surf City's scale — its 7b band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Surf 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 Surf City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Surf City's own scale — its own ~253-day season between 28°F freezes, the 476 acres it covers and 405 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Surf City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Surf City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 29 and the ~253-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 405 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Surf City, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Surf City's boundary and the 476 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Surf City's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Surf Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Surf City's 476 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 Surf City's 476 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Surf 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 476 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Surf City-wide figureread your own land →