New Church, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in New Church, 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 New Church 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 New Church — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Church — the short answer
New Church, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 7b is New Church's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Church's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Church
Each reading below is measured for New Church itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Church runs about 240 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
MeasuredNew Church sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 New Church is in
New Church sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Church's own centroid rather than borrowed from Accomack County.
What Grows in New Church
Every plant below cleared New Church's own zone 7b and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Church?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 New Church
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from New Church, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Church
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Church. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COASTLINE CHEMICALToxics Release Inventory · 400 ft
- NEW CHURCH FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WARD KELLEY CAFOCAFO · 2500 ft
- EDDIE KELLY CAFOCAFO · 2500 ft
- CHEMOIL SERVICES INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Virginia First & LastUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COMMONWEALTH CHESAPEAKE COMPANY, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- COASTLINE CHEMICAL INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- 66M 2Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- HORSEY POULTRY FARM LLCCAFO · 0.8 mi
- THOMAS DAVIS CAFOCAFO · 0.8 mi
- DAVIS C LEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Church'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 New Church.
Total Sites
326
within ~10 miles of New Church
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Church
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Church
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Church, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 88 sites within ~10 miles of New Church. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 New Church
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 New Church average
Your land is one point inside New Church
Everything above resolves to New Church as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 New Church Average
New Church Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across New Church
- ●One soil character for all of New Church
- ●Frost dates read at New Church's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Church's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Church
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Church, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Church averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Church — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Church average
How we know this about New Church
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 New Church’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 New Church
When does frost risk typically end in New Church?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Church typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in New Church?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Church typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Church?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Church sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 5, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Church?
The federal record around New Church is a meaningful one — 326 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (149), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 New Church?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Church's scale — its 7b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Church'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 New Church’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Church's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,211 acres it covers and 326 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Church's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Church's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 19 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 326 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Church, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Church's boundary and the 1,211 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Church's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Churchlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Church's 1,211 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 New Church's 1,211 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Church you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,211 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 New Church-wide figureread your own land →