Captains Cove, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Captains Cove, 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 Captains Cove 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 Captains Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Captains Cove — the short answer
Captains Cove, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- 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
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Captains Cove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Captains Cove's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Captains Cove
Each reading below is measured for Captains Cove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCaptains Cove runs about 258 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
MeasuredCaptains Cove 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 Captains Cove is in
Captains Cove sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Captains Cove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Accomack County.
What Grows in Captains Cove
Every plant below cleared Captains Cove's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Captains Cove?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Captains Cove
Survey cells within 31 miles of Captains Cove checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 32 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Captains Cove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Captains Cove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAPTAINS COVE GOLF & YACHT CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Captains Cove Utility CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- WO Fc 50Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- WO Fc 53Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- BIG MILL POND FARMCAFO · 2.2 mi
- CAPTAINS COVEPFAS · 2.4 mi
- TDR ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- TODD HITE JR./DAD'S DREAMCAFO · 2.6 mi
- ROWLAND FARMCAFO · 2.7 mi
- WO Fc 55Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- WO Fc 56Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- TWIN OAK FARMCAFO · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Captains Cove'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 Captains Cove.
Total Sites
273
within ~10 miles of Captains Cove
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Captains Cove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Captains Cove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Captains Cove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Captains Cove — CAFO (60 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Captains Cove
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 Captains Cove average
Your land is one point inside Captains Cove
Everything above resolves to Captains Cove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Captains Cove Average
Captains Cove Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Captains Cove
- ●One soil character for all of Captains Cove
- ●Frost dates read at Captains Cove's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Captains Cove's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Captains Cove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Captains Cove, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Captains Cove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Captains Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Captains Cove average
How we know this about Captains Cove
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 Captains Cove’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 Captains Cove
When does frost risk typically end in Captains Cove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Captains Cove typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Captains Cove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Captains Cove 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 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Captains Cove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Captains Cove sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 16, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Captains Cove?
The federal record around Captains Cove is a meaningful one — 273 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (132), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Captains Cove?
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 Captains Cove's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Captains Cove'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 Captains Cove’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Captains Cove's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,890 acres it covers and 273 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Captains Cove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Captains Cove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 30 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 273 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Captains Cove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Captains Cove's boundary and the 1,890 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Captains Cove's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Captains Cove 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 Captains Cove's 1,890 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 Captains Cove's 1,890 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Captains Cove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,890 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 Captains Cove-wide figureread your own land →