Cheswold, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cheswold, 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 Cheswold 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 Cheswold — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cheswold — the short answer
Cheswold, Delaware: USDA zone 7b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Cheswold's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cheswold's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cheswold
Each reading below is measured for Cheswold itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCheswold runs about 237 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
MeasuredCheswold 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 Cheswold is in
Cheswold sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cheswold's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kent County.
What Grows in Cheswold
Every plant below cleared Cheswold's own zone 7b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cheswold?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Cheswold
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Cheswold, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cheswold
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cheswold. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Deldot Cheswold YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- DELDOT CHESWOLD YARD - 4275 SEVEN HICKORIES RD, CHESWOLDBrownfields · 850 ft
- Jo Eve Farms IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Cheswold Fire DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Roys Electrical ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- REEDS BODY SHOP - RAIL ROAD AVE, CHESWOLDBrownfields · 2600 ft
- HMA CONCRETE LLC DBA HERITAGE CONCRETE CHESWOLD FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORES OF DE, LLC. #11453Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- Shore Stop #232 CheswoldUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHEM-SOLV, INC.Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- CHEM-SOLV, INC.Superfund · 0.7 mi
- Cheswold Land IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cheswold'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 Cheswold.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cheswold
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cheswold
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cheswold, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Cheswold. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Cheswold
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 Cheswold average
Your land is one point inside Cheswold
Everything above resolves to Cheswold as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Cheswold Average
Cheswold Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Cheswold
- ●One soil character for all of Cheswold
- ●Frost dates read at Cheswold's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cheswold's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cheswold
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cheswold, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cheswold averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cheswold — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cheswold average
How we know this about Cheswold
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 Cheswold’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 Cheswold
When does frost risk typically end in Cheswold?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cheswold typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Cheswold?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cheswold typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cheswold?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cheswold sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 2, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cheswold?
The federal record around Cheswold runs heavier than most — 762 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (390), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cheswold?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cheswold's scale — its 7b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cheswold'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 Cheswold’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cheswold's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,176 acres it covers and 762 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cheswold's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cheswold's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 16 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 762 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cheswold, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cheswold's boundary and the 1,176 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cheswold's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cheswoldlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cheswold's 1,176 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kent County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kent County
- The growing challenges every Delaware grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Delaware
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Kent County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cheswold's 1,176 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cheswold you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,176 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cheswold-wide figureread your own land →