Painter, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Painter, 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 Painter 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 Painter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Painter — the short answer
Painter, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 417 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 417 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 Painter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Painter's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Painter
Each reading below is measured for Painter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPainter runs about 258 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
MeasuredPainter 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 Painter is in
Painter sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Painter's own centroid rather than borrowed from Accomack County.
What Grows in Painter
Every plant below cleared Painter's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Painter?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Painter
Survey cells within 31 miles of Painter checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Painter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Painter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CARROLL SAVAGES STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- VPI&SU - Eastern Shore Researc StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- JAMES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- BJS CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- E&C Enterprises Inc VA 606Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Stop and Shop / CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- HICKMAN LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 64J 1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- CENTRAL MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- AMOCO OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- T-F GRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Bundick Well and Pump CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Painter'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 Painter.
Total Sites
182
within ~10 miles of Painter
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Painter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Painter
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Painter, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 138 sites within ~10 miles of Painter. 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 Painter
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 Painter average
Your land is one point inside Painter
Everything above resolves to Painter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 417 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 Painter Average
Painter Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Painter
- ●One soil character for all of Painter
- ●Frost dates read at Painter's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Painter's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Painter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Painter, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Painter averages can't show:
We read public map data around Painter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Painter average
How we know this about Painter
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 Painter’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 Painter
When does frost risk typically end in Painter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Painter typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Painter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Painter typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Painter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Painter sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 15, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Painter?
The federal record around Painter shows 182 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (138), 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 Painter?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Painter's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Painter'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 Painter’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Painter's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 417 acres it covers and 182 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Painter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Painter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 29 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 182 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Painter, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Painter's boundary and the 417 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Painter's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Painter 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 Painter's 417 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 Painter's 417 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Painter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 417 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 Painter-wide figureread your own land →