Lewes, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lewes, 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 Lewes 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 Lewes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lewes — the short answer
Lewes, Delaware: USDA zone 8a, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 8a is Lewes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lewes's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lewes
Each reading below is measured for Lewes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLewes runs about 267 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLewes sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Lewes is in
Lewes sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lewes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sussex County.
What Grows in Lewes
Every plant below cleared Lewes's own zone 8a and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lewes?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Lewes
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Lewes, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lewes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lewes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- R&R GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Third Street Parking LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Todds Auto CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Lewes Senior Citizens CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Bell Atlantic 95540 AngolaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- City of LewesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Atlantic Concrete CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Lewes Harbour MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Bell Atlantic IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Mills PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Morris John WUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Hazzard Auto RepairsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lewes'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 Lewes.
Total Sites
532
within ~10 miles of Lewes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lewes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lewes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lewes, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lewes — Nitrate (294 sites) and PFAS (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Lewes
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 Lewes average
Your land is one point inside Lewes
Everything above resolves to Lewes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 city 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 Lewes Average
Lewes Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lewes
- ●One soil character for all of Lewes
- ●Frost dates read at Lewes's scale: Mar 9 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lewes's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lewes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lewes, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lewes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lewes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lewes average
How we know this about Lewes
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Lewes’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Lewes
When does frost risk typically end in Lewes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lewes typically lands around Mar 9, 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 Mar 30.
When is the first frost in Lewes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lewes typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lewes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lewes sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 17, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lewes?
The federal record around Lewes is a meaningful one — 532 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (294), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Lewes?
From about Nov 1 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 Dec 1 (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 Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lewes's scale — its 8a band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lewes'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 Lewes’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lewes's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,683 acres it covers and 532 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lewes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lewes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Dec 1 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 532 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lewes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lewes's boundary and the 2,683 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lewes's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Leweslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lewes's 2,683 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sussex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sussex 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 Sussex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lewes's 2,683 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lewes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,683 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 Lewes-wide figureread your own land →