Kent Acres, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, 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 Kent Acres, 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 Kent Acres 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 Kent Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kent Acres — the short answer
Kent Acres, Delaware: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 543 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 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 543 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 Kent Acres's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kent Acres's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kent Acres
Each reading below is measured for Kent Acres itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKent Acres runs about 240 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
MeasuredKent Acres 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 Kent Acres is in
Kent Acres sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kent Acres's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kent County.
What Grows in Kent Acres
Every plant below cleared Kent Acres's own zone 7b and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kent Acres?
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 19 — 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 Kent Acres
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Kent Acres, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kent Acres
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kent Acres. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lakeside Dairy Market DoverUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Moores Lake Pump Station # 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Service Specialist IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Eastern Shore Equipment CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Trexlers Towing & Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HERTRICH NISSAN DOVERBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Shubh Labh, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Shore Stop #266 DoverUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Capitol Uniform & Linen ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Joe Malago IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MALAGO TIRE & AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- HERTRICH CAPITOL - 1127 SOUTH DUPONT HIGHWAY, DOVERBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kent Acres'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 Kent Acres.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kent Acres
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kent Acres
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Kent Acres
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 Kent Acres average
Your land is one point inside Kent Acres
Everything above resolves to Kent Acres as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 543 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 Kent Acres Average
Kent Acres Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Kent Acres
- ●One soil character for all of Kent Acres
- ●Frost dates read at Kent Acres's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kent Acres's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kent Acres
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kent Acres, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kent Acres averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kent Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kent Acres average
How we know this about Kent Acres
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 Kent Acres’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 Kent Acres
When does frost risk typically end in Kent Acres?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kent Acres 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 Kent Acres?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kent Acres typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kent Acres?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kent Acres sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 5, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kent Acres?
The federal record around Kent Acres runs heavier than most — 659 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (371), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Kent Acres?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kent Acres's scale — its 7b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kent Acres'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 Kent Acres’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kent Acres's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 543 acres it covers and 659 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kent Acres's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kent Acres's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 19 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 659 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kent Acres, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kent Acres's boundary and the 543 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kent Acres's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kent Acreslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kent Acres's 543 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 Kent Acres's 543 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kent Acres you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 543 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Kent Acres-wide figureread your own land →