New Kent County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
New Kent County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across New Kent 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 New Kent County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Kent County — the short answer
New Kent County, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 134K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 134K 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 7b is New Kent County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Kent County's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in New Kent County
Across a year, New Kent County accumulates about 4,257 growing degree days above 50°F, about 523 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 108 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 1,955 hours below 45°F, 483 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 New Kent County
Across New Kent County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Nevarc, Remlik, and Emporia are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
33%
Hydric soils
19%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across New Kent County
The USDA soil survey maps 52% of New Kent County as moderately well drained — but another 43% drains differently: 24% well drained, 14% very poorly drained.
Nevarc is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Remlik (18%) and Emporia (10%).
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 New Kent County
Each reading below is measured for New Kent 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 New Kent County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across New Kent County runs about pH 4.8–5.3, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 19% of New Kent County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredNew Kent County runs about 242 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
The kind of country New Kent County is in
New Kent 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 New Kent County
We scored all 1,086 plants against New Kent County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 242-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 New Kent County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 New Kent County
Spotted lanternfly documented 18 miles from New Kent County, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in New Kent County
USGS estimates 10,421 lb of Glyphosate on New Kent County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (4,013 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (2,443 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 New Kent County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across New Kent County — 117 documented sites across 5 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 New Kent County — 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 New Kent County
Closest first, across New Kent County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- New Kent Vehicle Maintenance FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Richard WestleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- New Kent Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Courthouse Convenience CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 55J 4Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- New Kent Courthouse Piney Point SOW 228Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- New Kent Public Utilities DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- New Kent Courthouse Dept Gen ServUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Allied Pallet CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- VDOT New Kent I64 Rest Area EastboundUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Colonial Downs Pit StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- VDOT - Slatersville HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Kent 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 New Kent County.
Total Sites
117
across New Kent County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across New Kent County
Severity Distribution
across New Kent County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Kent County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 79 sites across New Kent County. 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 New Kent 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 New Kent County average
Your land is one point inside New Kent County
Everything above resolves to New Kent County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 134K 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 New Kent County Average
New Kent County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across New Kent County
- ●One soil character for all of New Kent County
- ●Frost dates read at New Kent County's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Kent County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in New Kent County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Kent County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Kent County averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Kent County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Kent County average
How we know this about New Kent 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 New Kent County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about New Kent County
When does frost risk typically end in New Kent County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Kent County typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in New Kent County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Kent County sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 4, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Kent County?
The federal record around New Kent County is a meaningful one — 117 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 New Kent County's scale — its 7b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Kent 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 New Kent County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at New Kent County's own scale — its own ~242-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 117 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Kent County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Kent County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in New Kent CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 117 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- New Kent County's boundary and the 134,420 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- New Kent County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in New Kent County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto New Kent 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 New Kent County — the ~242 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 New Kent County's 134,420 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 117 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 New Kent Countyread your own land →