Millville, 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 Millville, 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 Millville 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 Millville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Millville — the short answer
Millville, Delaware: USDA zone 7b, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Millville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Millville's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Millville
Each reading below is measured for Millville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMillville runs about 249 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
MeasuredMillville 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 Millville is in
Millville sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Millville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sussex County.
What Grows in Millville
Every plant below cleared Millville's own zone 7b and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Millville?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Millville
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Millville, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Millville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Millville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Millville Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ATLANTIC AVENUE PFASSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- Hockers Grocery & Deli ClarksvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Hockers Grocery & DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Fuzzys Tire CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WALGREENS #11044Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- Country Store & Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Holts Landing State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Del DOT Route 26 Right-of-WayUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PCMN-197Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- Skeeters SubsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Fin & ClawUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Millville'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 Millville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Millville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Millville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Millville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Millville — Nitrate (368 sites) and CAFO (9 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Millville
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 Millville average
Your land is one point inside Millville
Everything above resolves to Millville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Millville Average
Millville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Millville
- ●One soil character for all of Millville
- ●Frost dates read at Millville's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Millville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Millville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Millville, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Millville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Millville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Millville average
How we know this about Millville
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 Millville’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 Millville
When does frost risk typically end in Millville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Millville typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Millville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Millville typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Millville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Millville sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 9, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Millville?
The federal record around Millville is a meaningful one — 693 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (368), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Millville?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Millville's scale — its 7b band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Millville'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 Millville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Millville's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,630 acres it covers and 693 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Millville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Millville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 23 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 693 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Millville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Millville's boundary and the 1,630 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Millville's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Millvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Millville's 1,630 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 Millville's 1,630 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Millville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,630 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Millville-wide figureread your own land →