Nassawadox, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nassawadox, 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 Nassawadox 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 Nassawadox — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Nassawadox — the short answer
Nassawadox, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 424 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 424 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 Nassawadox's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nassawadox's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nassawadox
Each reading below is measured for Nassawadox itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNassawadox 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
MeasuredNassawadox 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 Nassawadox is in
Nassawadox sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Nassawadox's own centroid rather than borrowed from Northampton County.
What Grows in Nassawadox
Every plant below cleared Nassawadox'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 Nassawadox?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Nassawadox
Survey cells within 31 miles of Nassawadox checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 42 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Nassawadox
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nassawadox. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JAMES W HARMON SRUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- ABES BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- ELLIOTT AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- W CROCKETT & SON SEAFOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Shore Stop 204Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- EASTERN SHORE BEVERAGE DISTB INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 64H 2Nitrate · 750 ft
- B T WardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RIVERSIDE SHORE MEMORIAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 1500 ft
- NORTHAMPTON ACCOMACK MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HERITAGE HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- JONES FISH MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nassawadox'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 Nassawadox.
Total Sites
107
within ~10 miles of Nassawadox
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nassawadox
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nassawadox
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nassawadox, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 91 sites within ~10 miles of Nassawadox. 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 Nassawadox
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 Nassawadox average
Your land is one point inside Nassawadox
Everything above resolves to Nassawadox as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 424 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 Nassawadox Average
Nassawadox Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Nassawadox
- ●One soil character for all of Nassawadox
- ●Frost dates read at Nassawadox's scale: Mar 12 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nassawadox's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nassawadox
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nassawadox, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nassawadox averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nassawadox — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nassawadox average
How we know this about Nassawadox
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 Nassawadox’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 Nassawadox
When does frost risk typically end in Nassawadox?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nassawadox typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Nassawadox?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nassawadox typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nassawadox?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nassawadox sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 20, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nassawadox?
The federal record around Nassawadox shows 107 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Nassawadox?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nassawadox's scale — its 8a band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nassawadox'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 Nassawadox’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Nassawadox's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 424 acres it covers and 107 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nassawadox's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nassawadox's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Dec 4 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 107 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nassawadox, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nassawadox's boundary and the 424 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 Nassawadox's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Nassawadox 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 Nassawadox's 424 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Northampton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Northampton 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 Northampton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nassawadox's 424 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nassawadox you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 424 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Nassawadox-wide figureread your own land →