Bethel Manor, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Bethel Manor, 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 Bethel Manor 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 Bethel Manor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bethel Manor — the short answer
Bethel Manor, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 323 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 323 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 Bethel Manor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bethel Manor's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bethel Manor
Each reading below is measured for Bethel Manor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBethel Manor runs about 269 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
MeasuredBethel Manor 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 Bethel Manor is in
Bethel Manor sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bethel Manor's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: York County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bethel Manor
Every plant below cleared Bethel Manor's own zone 8a and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bethel Manor?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Bethel Manor
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Bethel Manor, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bethel Manor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bethel Manor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 18549Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 7-ELEVEN #18549Brownfields · 2300 ft
- Tabb ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Kims ValeroUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EXXON CO USA #28385Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- Koepp Property Former ARCO StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 22018Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BIG BETHEL PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Happy ShopperUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- IMMANUEL BAPTIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Pump Station #47 CoventryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING LIGHT MANUFACTURING ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY (LMAT) CAMPUSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bethel Manor'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 Bethel Manor.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bethel Manor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bethel Manor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bethel Manor, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 810 sites within ~10 miles of Bethel Manor. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bethel Manor
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 Bethel Manor average
Your land is one point inside Bethel Manor
Everything above resolves to Bethel Manor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 323 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 Bethel Manor Average
Bethel Manor Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bethel Manor
- ●One soil character for all of Bethel Manor
- ●Frost dates read at Bethel Manor's scale: Mar 9 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bethel Manor's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bethel Manor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bethel Manor, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bethel Manor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bethel Manor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bethel Manor average
How we know this about Bethel Manor
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 Bethel Manor’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 Bethel Manor
When does frost risk typically end in Bethel Manor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bethel Manor typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Bethel Manor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bethel Manor typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bethel Manor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bethel Manor sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 19, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bethel Manor?
The federal record around Bethel Manor runs heavier than most — 1,309 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (810), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Bethel Manor?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 3 (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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bethel Manor's scale — its 8a band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bethel Manor'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 Bethel Manor’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bethel Manor's own scale — its own ~269-day season between 28°F freezes, the 323 acres it covers and 1,309 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bethel Manor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bethel Manor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Dec 3 and the ~269-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,309 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bethel Manor, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bethel Manor's boundary and the 323 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bethel Manor sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bethel Manorlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bethel Manor's 323 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom York County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom York 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 York County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bethel Manor's 323 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bethel Manor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 323 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Bethel Manor-wide figureread your own land →