Smithfield, 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 Smithfield, 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 Smithfield 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 Smithfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Smithfield — the short answer
Smithfield, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 266 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~266
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Smithfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Smithfield's 266-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Smithfield
Each reading below is measured for Smithfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSmithfield runs about 266 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
MeasuredSmithfield 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 Smithfield is in
Smithfield sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Smithfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Isle of Wight County.
What Grows in Smithfield
Every plant below cleared Smithfield's own zone 8a and its 266-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Smithfield?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — 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 Smithfield
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Smithfield, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Smithfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Smithfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Jenette's Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SENTRY FOOD MART #5Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Royal Farms 130Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 58D 4Nitrate · 1400 ft
- Supreme Petroleum IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- STEPHEN H GASKINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CARTER CONSTRUCTION COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- KEENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Rogers Veterinary HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CHARLIES BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- GWALTNEY MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CALIBER COLLISION CENTER - SMITHFIELD 1780Brownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Smithfield'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 Smithfield.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Smithfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Smithfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Smithfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Smithfield — Superfund (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (197 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Smithfield
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 Smithfield average
Your land is one point inside Smithfield
Everything above resolves to Smithfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Smithfield Average
Smithfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Smithfield
- ●One soil character for all of Smithfield
- ●Frost dates read at Smithfield's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Smithfield's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Smithfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Smithfield, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Smithfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Smithfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smithfield average
How we know this about Smithfield
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 Smithfield’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 Smithfield
When does frost risk typically end in Smithfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Smithfield typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Smithfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Smithfield typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 266 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Smithfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Smithfield sees about 266 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 16, about 231 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Smithfield?
The federal record around Smithfield is a meaningful one — 305 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (197), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Smithfield?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Smithfield's scale — its 8a band and its 266-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Smithfield'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 Smithfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Smithfield's own scale — its own ~266-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,224 acres it covers and 305 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Smithfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Smithfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 30 and the ~266-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 305 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Smithfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Smithfield's boundary and the 6,224 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~266-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Smithfield's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Smithfieldlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Smithfield's 6,224 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Isle of Wight County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Isle of Wight 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 Isle of Wight County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Smithfield's 6,224 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Smithfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,224 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Smithfield-wide figureread your own land →