Viola, 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 Viola, 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 Viola 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 Viola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Viola — the short answer
Viola, Delaware: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 113 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 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 113 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 Viola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Viola's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Viola
Each reading below is measured for Viola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredViola runs about 233 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
MeasuredViola 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 Viola is in
Viola sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Viola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kent County.
What Grows in Viola
Every plant below cleared Viola's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Viola?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 13 — 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 Viola
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Viola, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Viola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Viola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAMDEN PUMP DISTRICTPFAS · 0.6 mi
- Martin Limestone WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Naumann PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Shore Stop #236 FeltonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Henrys MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Pit Stop DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DNREC Norman G Wilder AreaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Chambers Dodge Truck CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Blades Bus Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Billings PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Moxleys Service Center FeltonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PCMN-213Nitrate · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Viola'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 Viola.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Viola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Viola
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 Viola
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 Viola average
Your land is one point inside Viola
Everything above resolves to Viola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 113 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 Viola Average
Viola Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Viola
- ●One soil character for all of Viola
- ●Frost dates read at Viola's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Viola's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Viola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Viola, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Viola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Viola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Viola average
How we know this about Viola
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 Viola’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 Viola
When does frost risk typically end in Viola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Viola 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 Viola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Viola typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Viola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Viola sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 30, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Viola?
The federal record around Viola runs heavier than most — 664 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (370), the nearest PFAS record about 0.6 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 Viola?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Viola's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Viola'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 Viola’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Viola's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 113 acres it covers and 664 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Viola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Viola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 13 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 664 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Viola, the closest PFAS record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Viola's boundary and the 113 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Viola's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Violalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Viola's 113 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 Viola's 113 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Viola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 113 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.6 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 Viola-wide figureread your own land →