Cats Bridge, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cats Bridge, 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 Cats Bridge 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 Cats Bridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cats Bridge — the short answer
Cats Bridge, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- 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 Cats Bridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cats Bridge's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cats Bridge
Each reading below is measured for Cats Bridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCats Bridge runs about 264 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
MeasuredCats Bridge 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 Cats Bridge is in
Cats Bridge sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cats Bridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Accomack County.
What Grows in Cats Bridge
Every plant below cleared Cats Bridge's own zone 8a and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cats Bridge?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Cats Bridge
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cats Bridge checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 48 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cats Bridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cats Bridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bundick Well and Pump CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Fast Stop #1203Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- T-F GRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BAGWELL OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- E&C Enterprises Inc VA 607Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Harry W. Drummond Inc Belle Haven FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- County Line StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- AMERICAN ORIGINAL FOODSToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- COLONNA GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Community Fire Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Hare Valley Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- EXMORE-WILLIE WHARF ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cats Bridge'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 Cats Bridge.
Total Sites
121
within ~10 miles of Cats Bridge
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cats Bridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cats Bridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cats Bridge, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 100 sites within ~10 miles of Cats Bridge. 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 Cats Bridge
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 Cats Bridge average
Your land is one point inside Cats Bridge
Everything above resolves to Cats Bridge 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 Cats Bridge Average
Cats Bridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cats Bridge
- ●One soil character for all of Cats Bridge
- ●Frost dates read at Cats Bridge's scale: Mar 13 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cats Bridge's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cats Bridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cats Bridge, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cats Bridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cats Bridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cats Bridge average
How we know this about Cats Bridge
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 Cats Bridge’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 Cats Bridge
When does frost risk typically end in Cats Bridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cats Bridge typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Cats Bridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cats Bridge typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cats Bridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cats Bridge sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 18, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cats Bridge?
The federal record around Cats Bridge shows 121 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (100), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cats Bridge?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cats Bridge's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cats Bridge'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 Cats Bridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cats Bridge's own scale — its own ~264-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,029 acres it covers and 121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cats Bridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cats Bridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Dec 2 and the ~264-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cats Bridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cats Bridge's boundary and the 2,029 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cats Bridge's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cats Bridge 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 Cats Bridge's 2,029 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 Cats Bridge's 2,029 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cats Bridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,029 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Cats Bridge-wide figureread your own land →