Waretown, 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 Waretown, 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 Waretown 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 Waretown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Waretown — the short answer
Waretown, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 591 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 591 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 Waretown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waretown's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waretown
Each reading below is measured for Waretown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaretown runs about 234 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
MeasuredWaretown 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 Waretown is in
Waretown sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Waretown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ocean County.
What Grows in Waretown
Every plant below cleared Waretown's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waretown?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Waretown
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Waretown, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Waretown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waretown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CVS PHARMACY #7190Brownfields · 600 ft
- WARETOWN AUTO CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MUNICIPAL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LONG KEY MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BIRDSALL STREET WATER TANKBrownfields · 1500 ft
- 291423-- No 1Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 290743-- Rt 532Nitrate · 2000 ft
- OCEAN TWP BD OF ED WARETOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 2200 ft
- WARREN INVESTMENTS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 290512-- MJWC 1Nitrate · 2200 ft
- SANBORN MARINE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SUNOCO 0010-0362Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waretown'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 Waretown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waretown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waretown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Waretown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Waretown — PFAS (9 sites) and Nitrate (178 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Waretown
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 Waretown average
Your land is one point inside Waretown
Everything above resolves to Waretown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 591 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 Waretown Average
Waretown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Waretown
- ●One soil character for all of Waretown
- ●Frost dates read at Waretown's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waretown's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waretown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waretown, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waretown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waretown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waretown average
How we know this about Waretown
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 Waretown’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 Waretown
When does frost risk typically end in Waretown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waretown typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Waretown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waretown typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Waretown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waretown sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Nov 4, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waretown?
The federal record around Waretown is a meaningful one — 531 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (264), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Waretown?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Waretown's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waretown'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 Waretown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Waretown's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 591 acres it covers and 531 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waretown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waretown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 18 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 531 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waretown, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waretown's boundary and the 591 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Waretown's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Waretownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Waretown's 591 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 Waretown's 591 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waretown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 591 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Waretown-wide figureread your own land →
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