Gwynn, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Gwynn, 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 Gwynn 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 Gwynn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gwynn — the short answer
Gwynn, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- 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
- ~267
- 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 Gwynn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gwynn's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gwynn
Each reading below is measured for Gwynn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGwynn runs about 267 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
MeasuredGwynn 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 Gwynn is in
Gwynn sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gwynn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mathews County.
What Grows in Gwynn
Every plant below cleared Gwynn's own zone 8a and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gwynn?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Gwynn
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Gwynn, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gwynn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gwynn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- U S C G STATION MILFORD HAVENBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Narrows MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Gwynns Island ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Pulleys MarineUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Seabreeze ResturantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 60H 3Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- Mathews Yacht ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MGM Gas Company (Former)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- W E BroaddusUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- 7-Eleven 34315Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Modern Exxon (Former)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Doziers Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gwynn'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 Gwynn.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gwynn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gwynn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gwynn, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 85 sites within ~10 miles of Gwynn. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Gwynn
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 Gwynn average
Your land is one point inside Gwynn
Everything above resolves to Gwynn 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 Gwynn Average
Gwynn Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Gwynn
- ●One soil character for all of Gwynn
- ●Frost dates read at Gwynn's scale: Mar 10 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gwynn's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gwynn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gwynn, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gwynn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gwynn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gwynn average
How we know this about Gwynn
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 Gwynn’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 Gwynn
When does frost risk typically end in Gwynn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gwynn typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Gwynn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gwynn 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 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gwynn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gwynn sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 18, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gwynn?
The federal record around Gwynn shows 99 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Gwynn?
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 Gwynn's scale — its 8a band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gwynn'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 Gwynn’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gwynn's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,501 acres it covers and 99 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gwynn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gwynn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Dec 2 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 99 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gwynn, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gwynn's boundary and the 1,501 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gwynn's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gwynnlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gwynn's 1,501 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mathews County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mathews 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 Mathews County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gwynn's 1,501 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gwynn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,501 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Gwynn-wide figureread your own land →
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