Wildwood, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Wildwood, 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 Wildwood 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 Wildwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wildwood — the short answer
Wildwood, New Jersey: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 986 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 986 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 8a is Wildwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wildwood's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wildwood
Each reading below is measured for Wildwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWildwood runs about 248 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
MeasuredWildwood sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Wildwood is in
Wildwood sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wildwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cape May County.
What Grows in Wildwood
Every plant below cleared Wildwood's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wildwood?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Wildwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Wildwood, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wildwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wildwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHARIOTS RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- BILLOWS ELECTRICUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- SETTLE PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- ABBOTTS DAIRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- 3819 NEW JERSEY AVENUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- JOHNNY'S GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- JCP&L WILDWOOD CITY COAL GAS PLANTBrownfields · 900 ft
- WILDWOOD HOUSING AUTHORITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CENTER CITY GAS & GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MUNICIPAL BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- M MAGGIO COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- L&B AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wildwood'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 Wildwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wildwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wildwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wildwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wildwood — PFAS (8 sites) and Superfund (9 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.
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 Wildwood
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 Wildwood average
Your land is one point inside Wildwood
Everything above resolves to Wildwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 986 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 Wildwood Average
Wildwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Wildwood
- ●One soil character for all of Wildwood
- ●Frost dates read at Wildwood's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wildwood's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wildwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wildwood, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wildwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wildwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wildwood average
How we know this about Wildwood
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 Wildwood’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 Wildwood
When does frost risk typically end in Wildwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wildwood typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Wildwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wildwood typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wildwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wildwood sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 7, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wildwood?
The federal record around Wildwood is a meaningful one — 525 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (318), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wildwood?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wildwood's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wildwood'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 Wildwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wildwood's own scale — its own ~248-day season between 28°F freezes, the 986 acres it covers and 525 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wildwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wildwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 21 and the ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 525 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wildwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wildwood's boundary and the 986 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wildwood's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wildwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wildwood's 986 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 Wildwood's 986 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wildwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 986 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wildwood-wide figureread your own land →