Schooner Bay, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Schooner Bay, 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 Schooner Bay 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 Schooner Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Schooner Bay — the short answer
Schooner Bay, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 268 days between hard freezes, across 76 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~268
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 76 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 Schooner Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Schooner Bay's 268-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Schooner Bay
Each reading below is measured for Schooner Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSchooner Bay runs about 268 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
MeasuredSchooner Bay 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 Schooner Bay is in
Schooner Bay sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Schooner Bay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Accomack County.
What Grows in Schooner Bay
Every plant below cleared Schooner Bay's own zone 8a and its 268-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Schooner Bay?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Schooner Bay
Survey cells within 31 miles of Schooner Bay 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 Schooner Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Schooner Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRACE COOPER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ONANCOCK OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- STEVENSON EQUIPMENT CO INCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- HERMITAGE ON THE EASTERN SHOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- TOWN OF ONANCOCK TOWN HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- BAGWELL OIL COMPANY, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- SPECIAL SERVICES CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- CHARLES E. MORGAN & SON, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- COBBS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- LILLISTON MELVIN JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- LAUGHING GULL MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- ELIZABETH WILLIAMS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Schooner Bay'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 Schooner Bay.
Total Sites
163
within ~10 miles of Schooner Bay
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Schooner Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Schooner Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Schooner Bay, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 119 sites within ~10 miles of Schooner Bay. 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 Schooner Bay
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 Schooner Bay average
Your land is one point inside Schooner Bay
Everything above resolves to Schooner Bay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 76 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 Schooner Bay Average
Schooner Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Schooner Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Schooner Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Schooner Bay's scale: Mar 10 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Schooner Bay's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Schooner Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Schooner Bay, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Schooner Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Schooner Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Schooner Bay average
How we know this about Schooner Bay
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 Schooner Bay’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 Schooner Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Schooner Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Schooner Bay typically lands around Mar 10, 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 Mar 31.
When is the first frost in Schooner Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Schooner Bay typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 268 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Schooner Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Schooner Bay sees about 268 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 19, about 233 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Schooner Bay?
The federal record around Schooner Bay shows 163 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (119), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles 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 Schooner Bay?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Schooner Bay's scale — its 8a band and its 268-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Schooner Bay'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 Schooner Bay’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Schooner Bay's own scale — its own ~268-day season between 28°F freezes, the 76 acres it covers and 163 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Schooner Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Schooner Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Dec 3 and the ~268-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 163 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Schooner Bay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Schooner Bay's boundary and the 76 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~268-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Schooner Bay's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Schooner Bay 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 Schooner Bay's 76 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 Schooner Bay's 76 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Schooner Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 76 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Schooner Bay-wide figureread your own land →