Makemie Park, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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.
Even in Makemie Park, 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 Makemie Park 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 Makemie Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Makemie Park — the short answer
Makemie Park, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 648 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 648 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 Makemie Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Makemie Park's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Makemie Park
Each reading below is measured for Makemie Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMakemie Park runs about 249 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
MeasuredMakemie Park 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 Makemie Park is in
Makemie Park sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Makemie Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Accomack County.
What Grows in Makemie Park
Every plant below cleared Makemie Park's own zone 8a and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Makemie Park?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Makemie Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 31 miles from Makemie Park, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Makemie Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Makemie Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEN HALL JR CAFO (D/B/A CONSOLIDATED FARM)CAFO · 800 ft
- BAYSIDE MARKETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JACK THOMPSON FARMCAFO · 0.6 mi
- EASTERN SHORE SOLAR, LLC - BLOCK A3Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- 66M 13Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 66M 12Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 66M 11Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- ARCADIA HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- EXCEL FARMCAFO · 2.2 mi
- IRA HOLLANDS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- A J GRAY & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- BUTLER BLDG SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Makemie Park'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 Makemie Park.
Total Sites
192
within ~10 miles of Makemie Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Makemie Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Makemie Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Makemie Park, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 41 sites within ~10 miles of Makemie Park. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Makemie Park
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 Makemie Park average
Your land is one point inside Makemie Park
Everything above resolves to Makemie Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 648 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 Makemie Park Average
Makemie Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Makemie Park
- ●One soil character for all of Makemie Park
- ●Frost dates read at Makemie Park's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Makemie Park's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Makemie Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Makemie Park, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Makemie Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Makemie Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Makemie Park average
How we know this about Makemie Park
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 Makemie Park’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 Makemie Park
When does frost risk typically end in Makemie Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Makemie Park typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Makemie Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Makemie Park typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Makemie Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Makemie Park sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 9, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Makemie Park?
The federal record around Makemie Park is a meaningful one — 192 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (97), the nearest CAFO record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Makemie Park?
From about Oct 24 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 Nov 23 (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 Nov 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Makemie Park's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Makemie Park'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 Makemie Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Makemie Park's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 648 acres it covers and 192 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Makemie Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Makemie Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 23 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 192 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Makemie Park, the closest CAFO record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Makemie Park's boundary and the 648 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Makemie Park's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Makemie Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Makemie Park's 648 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 Makemie Park's 648 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Makemie Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 648 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 0.2 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 Makemie Park-wide figureread your own land →