Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Jersey Shore, 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 Jersey Shore 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 Jersey Shore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jersey Shore — the short answer
Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 741 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 741 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 6b is Jersey Shore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jersey Shore's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jersey Shore
Each reading below is measured for Jersey Shore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJersey Shore runs about 198 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredJersey Shore sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Jersey Shore is in
Jersey Shore sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jersey Shore's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lycoming County is mostly North Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Jersey Shore
Every plant below cleared Jersey Shore's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jersey Shore?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Jersey Shore
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Jersey Shore, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Jersey Shore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jersey Shore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEADER NURSING CTR JERSEY SHORE DIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- JERSEY SHORE CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- JERSEY SHORE MUNI GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MODERN 1 HOUR CLNR/ALLEGHENY ST PLTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- JERSEY SHORE AREA JR HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AEPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- EU SCHERERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CITIZENS HOSE CO OF JERSEY SHOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JERSEY SHORE MINIT MART 237Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- R & S CARWASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TIADAGHTON VALLEY MALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SHOWCASE BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jersey Shore'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 Jersey Shore.
Total Sites
261
within ~10 miles of Jersey Shore
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jersey Shore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jersey Shore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jersey Shore, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 102 sites within ~10 miles of Jersey Shore. 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).
Check your specific parcel in Jersey Shore
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 Jersey Shore average
Your land is one point inside Jersey Shore
Everything above resolves to Jersey Shore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 741 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 Jersey Shore Average
Jersey Shore Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Jersey Shore
- ●One soil character for all of Jersey Shore
- ●Frost dates read at Jersey Shore's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jersey Shore's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jersey Shore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jersey Shore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jersey Shore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jersey Shore average
How we know this about Jersey Shore
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 Jersey Shore’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 Jersey Shore
When does frost risk typically end in Jersey Shore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jersey Shore typically lands around Apr 15, 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 May 6.
When is the first frost in Jersey Shore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jersey Shore typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jersey Shore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jersey Shore sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 16, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jersey Shore?
The federal record around Jersey Shore is a meaningful one — 261 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (115), 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 Jersey Shore?
From about Sep 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 Oct 30 (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 Oct 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jersey Shore's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jersey Shore'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 Jersey Shore’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Jersey Shore's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 741 acres it covers and 261 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jersey Shore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jersey Shore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 30 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 261 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jersey Shore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jersey Shore's boundary and the 741 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Jersey Shore sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Jersey Shorelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jersey Shore's 741 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lycoming County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lycoming County
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Lycoming County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jersey Shore's 741 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jersey Shore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 741 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 Jersey Shore-wide figureread your own land →
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