Felton, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Felton, 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 Felton 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 Felton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Felton — the short answer
Felton, Delaware: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 504 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 504 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 Felton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Felton's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Felton
Each reading below is measured for Felton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFelton runs about 232 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
MeasuredFelton 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 Felton is in
Felton sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Felton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kent County.
What Grows in Felton
Every plant below cleared Felton's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Felton?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Felton
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Felton, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Felton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Felton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Perdue IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Agway Inc Milford FertilizerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Milford Fertilizer CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Felton HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- All Rite Rubbish Removal - Main Street, FeltonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Goose Creek Food Store FeltonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Royal Farms Store #13Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Kd51-05Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- WAWA #886Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- All Rite Rubbish RemovalUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Moxleys Service Center FeltonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Blades Bus Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Felton'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 Felton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Felton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Felton
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Felton
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 Felton average
Your land is one point inside Felton
Everything above resolves to Felton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 504 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 Felton Average
Felton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Felton
- ●One soil character for all of Felton
- ●Frost dates read at Felton's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Felton's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Felton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Felton, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Felton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Felton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Felton average
How we know this about Felton
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 Felton’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 Felton
When does frost risk typically end in Felton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Felton typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Felton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Felton typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Felton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Felton sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 30, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Felton?
The federal record around Felton is a meaningful one — 506 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (273), 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 Felton?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Felton's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Felton'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 Felton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Felton's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 504 acres it covers and 506 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Felton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Felton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 13 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 506 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Felton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Felton's boundary and the 504 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Felton's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Feltonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Felton's 504 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 Felton's 504 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Felton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 504 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 Felton-wide figureread your own land →