Modest Town, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Modest Town, 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 Modest Town 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 Modest Town — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Modest Town — the short answer
Modest Town, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 378 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 378 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 Modest Town's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Modest Town's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Modest Town
Each reading below is measured for Modest Town itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredModest Town runs about 262 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
MeasuredModest Town 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 Modest Town is in
Modest Town sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Modest Town's own centroid rather than borrowed from Accomack County.
What Grows in Modest Town
Every plant below cleared Modest Town's own zone 8a and its 262-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Modest Town?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Modest Town
Survey cells within 31 miles of Modest Town checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 37 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Modest Town
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Modest Town. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PEPSI-COLA BOTTING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- E&C Enterprises Inc VA-604Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Citgo 156 - NelsoniaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Royal Farms 105Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- COMPLETE CAR CARE CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Jay-cee CleanersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- StuckeysUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Bloxom Auto Supply Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- NORTH ACCOMACK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- BLOXOM PRIMARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 66L 11Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 66L 12Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Modest Town'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 Modest Town.
Total Sites
153
within ~10 miles of Modest Town
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Modest Town
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Modest Town
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Modest Town, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Modest Town — CAFO (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (98 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Modest Town
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 Modest Town average
Your land is one point inside Modest Town
Everything above resolves to Modest Town as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 378 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 Modest Town Average
Modest Town Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Modest Town
- ●One soil character for all of Modest Town
- ●Frost dates read at Modest Town's scale: Mar 14 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Modest Town's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Modest Town
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Modest Town, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Modest Town averages can't show:
We read public map data around Modest Town — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Modest Town average
How we know this about Modest Town
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 Modest Town’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 Modest Town
When does frost risk typically end in Modest Town?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Modest Town typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Modest Town?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Modest Town typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 262 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Modest Town?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Modest Town sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 17, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Modest Town?
The federal record around Modest Town is a meaningful one — 153 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (98), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Modest Town?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Modest Town's scale — its 8a band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Modest Town'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 Modest Town’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Modest Town's own scale — its own ~262-day season between 28°F freezes, the 378 acres it covers and 153 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Modest Town's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Modest Town's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Dec 1 and the ~262-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 153 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Modest Town, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Modest Town's boundary and the 378 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Modest Town's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Modest Town checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Modest Town's 378 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 Modest Town's 378 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Modest Town you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 378 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Modest Town-wide figureread your own land →