Benns Church, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Benns Church, 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 Benns Church 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 Benns Church — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Benns Church — the short answer
Benns Church, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 Benns Church's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Benns Church's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Benns Church
Each reading below is measured for Benns Church itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBenns Church 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
MeasuredBenns Church 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 Benns Church is in
Benns Church sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Benns Church's own centroid rather than borrowed from Isle of Wight County.
What Grows in Benns Church
Every plant below cleared Benns Church's own zone 8a and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Benns Church?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Benns Church
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from Benns Church, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Benns Church
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Benns Church. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Carrollton MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- PAY-LESS AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- JIMS RADIATOR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- RIVERSIDE HEALTH SYSTEM SMITHFIELD HOSPITALBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Smithfield Downs LimitedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WAYSIDE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Smithfield High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY #1571Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- Miller Mart 25Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CLASSIC COLLISION - 2041 - CARROLLTONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Fuel ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- KROGER #575-29Brownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Benns Church'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 Benns Church.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Benns Church
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Benns Church
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Benns Church, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Benns Church — Superfund (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (264 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Benns Church
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 Benns Church average
Your land is one point inside Benns Church
Everything above resolves to Benns Church 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 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 Benns Church Average
Benns Church Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Benns Church
- ●One soil character for all of Benns Church
- ●Frost dates read at Benns Church's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Benns Church's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Benns Church
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Benns Church, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Benns Church averages can't show:
We read public map data around Benns Church — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Benns Church average
How we know this about Benns Church
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 Benns Church’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 Benns Church
When does frost risk typically end in Benns Church?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Benns Church typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Benns Church?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Benns Church typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Benns Church?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Benns Church sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 16, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Benns Church?
The federal record around Benns Church is a meaningful one — 426 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (264), 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 Benns Church?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Benns Church's scale — its 8a band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Benns Church'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 Benns Church’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Benns Church's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,627 acres it covers and 426 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Benns Church's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Benns Church's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 30 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 426 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Benns Church, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Benns Church's boundary and the 2,627 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 Benns Church's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Benns Churchlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Benns Church's 2,627 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Isle of Wight County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Isle of Wight County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Isle of Wight County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Benns Church's 2,627 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Benns Church you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,627 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 Benns Church-wide figureread your own land →