York County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
York County lies within the Hampton Roads / Coastal Southeast Virginia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
York County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across York 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 York County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
York County — the short answer
York County, Virginia: USDA zone 8b, about 276 days between hard freezes, across 67K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~276
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 67K 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 8b is York County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against York County's 276-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in York County
Across a year, York County accumulates about 4,415 growing degree days above 50°F, about 681 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 122 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 1,698 hours below 45°F, 740 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 York County
Across York County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Emporia, Slagle, and Tomotley are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
23%
Hydric soils
26%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across York County
The USDA soil survey maps 28% of York County as moderately well drained — but another 43% drains differently: 19% well drained, 14% poorly drained.
Emporia is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Slagle (13%) and Tomotley (11%).
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 York County
Each reading below is measured for York 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 York County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 York County runs about pH 4.6–5.0, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 26% of York 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
MeasuredYork County runs about 276 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
The kind of country York County is in
York County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (56%) and Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain (45%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in York County
We scored all 1,086 plants against York County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 276-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 York County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around York County
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from York County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly44 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in York County
USGS estimates 74 lb of 2,4-d on York County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (4 lb) and Metolachlor-s (2 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 York County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across York County — 275 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
York County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near York County
Closest first, across York County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 59F 99 SOW 190BNitrate · 1.5 mi
- 59F 98 SOW 190ANitrate · 1.5 mi
- Seaford Scallop CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 59F 93Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- NEWPORT NEWS, CITY OFPFAS · 2.6 mi
- FORMER GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- BURNETTS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- 59F 52Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- VDOT - CROAKER AREA HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- CHISMANN CREEK MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- HRSD - York River Sewage Treatment PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- HRSD - YORK RIVER WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from York 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 York County.
Sources Checked
across York County
Severity Distribution
across York County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around York County, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 5 sites across York County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in York 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 York County average
Your land is one point inside York County
Everything above resolves to York County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 67K 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 York County Average
York County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across York County
- ●One soil character for all of York County
- ●Frost dates read at York County's scale: Mar 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not York County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in York County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in York County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that York County averages can't show:
We read public map data around York County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the York County average
How we know this about York 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 York County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about York County
When does frost risk typically end in York County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in York County typically lands around Mar 5, 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 Mar 26.
How long is the growing season in York County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, York County sees about 276 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 22, about 241 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in York County?
The federal record around York County runs heavier than most — 275 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (120), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.5 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at York County's scale — its 8b band and its 276-day season. Your yard writes its own version of York 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 York County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at York County's own scale — its own ~276-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 275 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- York County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- York County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~276-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in York CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 275 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- York County's boundary and the 67,010 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~276-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions York County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in York County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto York 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 York County — the ~276 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 York County's 67,010 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 275 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 York Countyread your own land →