Middletown, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Middletown, 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 Middletown 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 Middletown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Middletown — the short answer
Middletown, Delaware: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Middletown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Middletown's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Middletown
Each reading below is measured for Middletown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMiddletown runs about 234 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
MeasuredMiddletown 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 Middletown is in
Middletown sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Middletown's own centroid rather than borrowed from New Castle County.
What Grows in Middletown
Every plant below cleared Middletown's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Middletown?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Middletown
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Middletown, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Middletown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Middletown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Everett Meredith Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MACDERMID INCToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- Hans Zeitler Residence USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DELSTAR TECHNOLOGIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- HYDRO CONDUIT CSRBrownfields · 1600 ft
- RINKER MATERIALS, HYDRO CONDUIT, MIDDLETOWNToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- RINKER MIDDLETOWN PIPEToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- MIDDLETOWN PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Fb42-03Nitrate · 2000 ft
- Boys and Girls ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MIDDLETOWN MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Roslyn C. Levinson Child Development CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Middletown'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 Middletown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Middletown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Middletown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Middletown, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 364 sites within ~10 miles of Middletown. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Middletown
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 Middletown average
Your land is one point inside Middletown
Everything above resolves to Middletown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Middletown Average
Middletown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Middletown
- ●One soil character for all of Middletown
- ●Frost dates read at Middletown's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Middletown's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Middletown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Middletown, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Middletown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Middletown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Middletown average
How we know this about Middletown
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 Middletown’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 Middletown
When does frost risk typically end in Middletown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Middletown typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Middletown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Middletown typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Middletown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Middletown sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 31, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Middletown?
The federal record around Middletown is a meaningful one — 596 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (364), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Middletown?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Middletown's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Middletown'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 Middletown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Middletown's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,639 acres it covers and 596 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Middletown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Middletown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 14 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 596 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Middletown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Middletown's boundary and the 8,639 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Middletown's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Middletownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Middletown's 8,639 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom New Castle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom New Castle 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 New Castle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Middletown's 8,639 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Middletown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,639 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 Middletown-wide figureread your own land →