Newport, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Newport, 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 Newport 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 Newport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Newport — the short answer
Newport, Delaware: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 299 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 299 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 Newport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Newport's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Newport
Each reading below is measured for Newport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNewport 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
MeasuredNewport 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 Newport is in
Newport sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Newport's own centroid rather than borrowed from New Castle County.
What Grows in Newport
Every plant below cleared Newport'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 Newport?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 18 — 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 Newport
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Newport, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Newport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Newport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INDEPENDENT TRANSMISSION COBrownfields · 550 ft
- Cc34-08Nitrate · 650 ft
- Donald F Deavon IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Duffy Property LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Former Neal BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Abid Merchant PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Budget RentalUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- EMC PROCESS COMPANY INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- MEDAL L.P., AIR LIQUIDEToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- MEDAL L.P., AIR LIQUIDEBrownfields · 950 ft
- Newport Pump StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- THORNLEY COMPANY - 1500 EAST NEWPORT PIKE, WILMINGTONBrownfields · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Newport'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 Newport.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Newport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Newport
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 Newport
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 Newport average
Your land is one point inside Newport
Everything above resolves to Newport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 299 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 Newport Average
Newport Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Newport
- ●One soil character for all of Newport
- ●Frost dates read at Newport's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Newport's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Newport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Newport, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Newport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Newport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Newport average
How we know this about Newport
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 Newport’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 Newport
When does frost risk typically end in Newport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Newport 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 Newport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Newport typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Newport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Newport sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 4, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Newport?
The federal record around Newport runs heavier than most — 2,783 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,397), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Newport?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Newport's scale — its 7b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Newport'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 Newport’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Newport's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 299 acres it covers and 2,783 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Newport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Newport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 18 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,783 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Newport, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Newport's boundary and the 299 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 Newport's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Newportlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Newport's 299 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 Newport's 299 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Newport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 299 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Newport-wide figureread your own land →