New Kent, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Kent, 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 Kent 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 Kent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Kent — the short answer
New Kent, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Kent's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Kent's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Kent
Each reading below is measured for New Kent itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Kent runs about 242 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 Kent 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 Kent is in
New Kent sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Kent's own centroid rather than borrowed from New Kent County.
What Grows in New Kent
Every plant below cleared New Kent's own zone 7b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Kent?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around New Kent
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from New Kent, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Kent
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Kent. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- New Kent Vehicle Maintenance FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- New Kent Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- 55J 4Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- New Kent Courthouse Piney Point SOW 228Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- New Kent Courthouse Dept Gen ServUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Richard WestleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Courthouse Convenience CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- VDOT New Kent I64 Rest Area EastboundUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- New Kent Public Utilities DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Russell Briere (Former)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Allied Pallet CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Cumberland HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Kent'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 Kent.
Total Sites
153
within ~10 miles of New Kent
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Kent
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Kent
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Kent, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 94 sites within ~10 miles of New Kent. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 New Kent
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 Kent average
Your land is one point inside New Kent
Everything above resolves to New Kent as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Kent Average
New Kent Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across New Kent
- ●One soil character for all of New Kent
- ●Frost dates read at New Kent's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Kent's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Kent
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Kent, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Kent averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Kent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Kent average
How we know this about New Kent
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 Kent’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 Kent
When does frost risk typically end in New Kent?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Kent typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in New Kent?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Kent typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Kent?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Kent sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 4, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Kent?
The federal record around New Kent is a meaningful one — 153 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (94), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Kent?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Kent's scale — its 7b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Kent'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 Kent’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Kent's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,873 acres it covers and 153 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Kent's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Kent's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 18 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 153 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Kent, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Kent's boundary and the 2,873 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Kent's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Kentlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Kent's 2,873 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom New Kent County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom New Kent 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 New Kent County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Kent's 2,873 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Kent you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,873 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 New Kent-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaNew Kent sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides