Bloxom, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bloxom, 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 Bloxom 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 Bloxom — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bloxom — the short answer
Bloxom, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 213 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 213 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 Bloxom's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bloxom's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bloxom
Each reading below is measured for Bloxom itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBloxom runs about 259 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
MeasuredBloxom 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 Bloxom is in
Bloxom sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bloxom's own centroid rather than borrowed from Accomack County.
What Grows in Bloxom
Every plant below cleared Bloxom's own zone 8a and its 259-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bloxom?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Bloxom
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bloxom checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 35 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bloxom
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bloxom. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bloxom Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Metompkin Contracting Company IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BLOXOM PRIMARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Cecils 981 829Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- COMPLETE CAR CARE CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Jay-cee CleanersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Royal Farms 105Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Citgo 156 - NelsoniaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- E&C Enterprises Inc VA-604Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 66L 12Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 66L 11Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- PEPSI-COLA BOTTING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bloxom'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 Bloxom.
Total Sites
164
within ~10 miles of Bloxom
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bloxom
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bloxom
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bloxom, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bloxom — CAFO (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (111 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bloxom
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 Bloxom average
Your land is one point inside Bloxom
Everything above resolves to Bloxom as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 213 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 Bloxom Average
Bloxom Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bloxom
- ●One soil character for all of Bloxom
- ●Frost dates read at Bloxom's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bloxom's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bloxom
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bloxom, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bloxom averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bloxom — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bloxom average
How we know this about Bloxom
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 Bloxom’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 Bloxom
When does frost risk typically end in Bloxom?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bloxom typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Bloxom?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bloxom typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 259 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bloxom?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bloxom sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 15, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bloxom?
The federal record around Bloxom is a meaningful one — 164 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (111), 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 Bloxom?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bloxom's scale — its 8a band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bloxom'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 Bloxom’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bloxom's own scale — its own ~259-day season between 28°F freezes, the 213 acres it covers and 164 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bloxom's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bloxom's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 29 and the ~259-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 164 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bloxom, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bloxom's boundary and the 213 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bloxom's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bloxom checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bloxom's 213 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Accomack County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Accomack 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 Accomack County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bloxom's 213 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bloxom you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 213 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 Bloxom-wide figureread your own land →