Wildwood Crest, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wildwood Crest, 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 Crest 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 Crest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wildwood Crest — the short answer
Wildwood Crest, New Jersey: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 831 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 831 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 Crest's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wildwood Crest's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wildwood Crest
Each reading below is measured for Wildwood Crest itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWildwood Crest runs about 255 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 Crest 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 Crest is in
Wildwood Crest sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wildwood Crest's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cape May County.
What Grows in Wildwood Crest
Every plant below cleared Wildwood Crest's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wildwood Crest?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Wildwood Crest
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Wildwood Crest, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wildwood Crest
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wildwood Crest. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 35 A CHARGE WELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CHARLES MASCIARELLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WILDWOOD CREST BOROUGH PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ROSEMARY ROAD PUMPING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- STOKES LAUNDRY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- KURTZ'S WATERFRONT RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WILDWOOD CREST BOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- STERLING MARINE SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WILDWOOD CREST GETTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SINNS DOCK FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SUMMER SANDS MOTEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TOPEKA AVENUE PUMPING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wildwood Crest'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 Crest.
Total Sites
475
within ~10 miles of Wildwood Crest
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wildwood Crest
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wildwood Crest
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wildwood Crest, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wildwood Crest — PFAS (7 sites) and Superfund (8 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Crest
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 Crest average
Your land is one point inside Wildwood Crest
Everything above resolves to Wildwood Crest as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 831 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 Wildwood Crest Average
Wildwood Crest Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Wildwood Crest
- ●One soil character for all of Wildwood Crest
- ●Frost dates read at Wildwood Crest's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wildwood Crest's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wildwood Crest
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wildwood Crest averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wildwood Crest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wildwood Crest average
How we know this about Wildwood Crest
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 Wildwood Crest’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 Wildwood Crest
When does frost risk typically end in Wildwood Crest?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wildwood Crest typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Wildwood Crest?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wildwood Crest typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wildwood Crest?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wildwood Crest sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 9, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wildwood Crest?
The federal record around Wildwood Crest is a meaningful one — 475 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (296), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Wildwood Crest?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wildwood Crest's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wildwood Crest'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 Crest’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wildwood Crest's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 831 acres it covers and 475 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wildwood Crest's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wildwood Crest's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 23 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 475 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wildwood Crest, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wildwood Crest's boundary and the 831 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wildwood Crest's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wildwood Crestlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wildwood Crest's 831 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 Crest's 831 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wildwood Crest you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 831 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 Wildwood Crest-wide figureread your own land →