Frederica, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Frederica, 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 Frederica 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 Frederica — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Frederica — the short answer
Frederica, Delaware: USDA zone 7b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- 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
- ~243
- 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 Frederica's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Frederica's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Frederica
Each reading below is measured for Frederica itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFrederica runs about 243 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
MeasuredFrederica 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 Frederica is in
Frederica sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Frederica's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kent County.
What Grows in Frederica
Every plant below cleared Frederica's own zone 7b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Frederica?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Frederica
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Frederica, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Frederica
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Frederica. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Former Robbins HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Flash Mini MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Morris GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Crouse PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORES OF DE, LLC. #10906Brownfields · 900 ft
- Frederica Pump Station 13Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- George Rothwell GrainaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- North Bowers Fire CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- George E EffingerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ILC DOVER, LP - FREDERICABrownfields · 1.2 mi
- ILC DOVER, LP - FREDERICAToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- KENT COUNTY REGIONAL WWTFBrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Frederica'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 Frederica.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Frederica
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Frederica
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 Frederica
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 Frederica average
Your land is one point inside Frederica
Everything above resolves to Frederica 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 Frederica Average
Frederica Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Frederica
- ●One soil character for all of Frederica
- ●Frost dates read at Frederica's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Frederica's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Frederica
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Frederica, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Frederica averages can't show:
We read public map data around Frederica — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Frederica average
How we know this about Frederica
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 Frederica’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 Frederica
When does frost risk typically end in Frederica?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Frederica typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Frederica?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Frederica 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 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Frederica?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Frederica sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 7, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Frederica?
The federal record around Frederica is a meaningful one — 591 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (335), 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 Frederica?
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 Frederica's scale — its 7b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Frederica'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 Frederica’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Frederica's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,114 acres it covers and 591 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Frederica's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Frederica's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 21 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 591 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Frederica, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Frederica's boundary and the 1,114 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Frederica's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fredericalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Frederica's 1,114 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 Frederica's 1,114 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Frederica you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,114 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 Frederica-wide figureread your own land →