James City County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
James City County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across James City County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 James City County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
James City County — the short answer
James City County, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 91K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 91K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 James City County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against James City County's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in James City County
Across a year, James City County accumulates about 4,357 growing degree days above 50°F, about 623 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 119 of Virginia’s 133 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 1,842 hours below 45°F, 596 fewer than the Virginia middle of 2,438. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in James City County
Across James City County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Emporia, Uchee, and Slagle are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
23%
Hydric soils
13%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across James City County
The USDA soil survey maps 39% of James City County as well drained — but another 39% drains differently: 27% moderately well drained, 8% very poorly drained.
Emporia is the most extensive named soil at 34% of mapped acres, then Uchee (9%) and Slagle (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in James City County
Each reading below is measured for James City County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across James City County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across James City County runs about pH 4.8–5.0, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredJames City County runs about 253 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
MeasuredJames City County 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 James City County is in
James City County sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in James City County
We scored all 1,086 plants against James City County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 253-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile.
Is it too late to plant in James City County?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around James City County
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from James City County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly9 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in James City County
USGS estimates 856 lb of Glyphosate on James City County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (517 lb) and Carbaryl (311 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across James City — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across James City — 281 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across James City — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near James City County
Closest first, across James City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LIFT STATION 7-3Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 56G 3Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 56G 6Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- LIFT STATION 7-2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LEWIS SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CENTREVILLE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Miller Mart 91Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HANDY ICE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LIFT STATION 6-3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 56G 8Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 56G 4Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- James City County PoliceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from James City County'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 James City County.
Sources Checked
across James City
Severity Distribution
across James City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around James City County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 80 sites across James City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in James City County
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 James City County average
Your land is one point inside James City County
Everything above resolves to James City County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 91K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the James City County Average
James City County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across James City County
- ●One soil character for all of James City County
- ●Frost dates read at James City County's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not James City County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in James City County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in James City County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that James City County averages can't show:
We read public map data around James City County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the James City County average
How we know this about James City County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where James City County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about James City County
When does frost risk typically end in James City County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in James City County typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
How long is the growing season in James City County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, James City County sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 10, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in James City County?
The federal record around James City County is a meaningful one — 281 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (145), 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.
Everything above is measured at James City County's scale — its 8a band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of James City County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Virginia's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at James City County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at James City County's own scale — its own ~253-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 281 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- James City County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- James City County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~253-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in James City CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 281 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- James City County's boundary and the 91,071 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- James City County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in James City County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto James City County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across James City County — the ~253 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among James City County's 91,071 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 281 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over James City Countyread your own land →