Tangier, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tangier, 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 Tangier 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 Tangier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tangier — the short answer
Tangier, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 268 days between hard freezes, across 346 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- Accomack County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Accomack County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~268
- Accomack County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 346 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Accomack County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Tangier's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tangier's 268-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tangier
Each reading below is measured for Tangier itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTangier runs about 268 days between hard freezes (read from Accomack County, the closest normal to Tangier) — 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
MeasuredTangier 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 Tangier is in
Tangier sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tangier's own centroid rather than borrowed from Accomack County.
What Grows in Tangier
Every plant below cleared Tangier'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 Tangier?
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 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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Tangier
Survey cells within 31 miles of Tangier checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tangier
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tangier. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 63L 5Nitrate · 450 ft
- 63L 2Nitrate · 850 ft
- 63L 3Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 63L 4Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 63L 1Nitrate · 2600 ft
Measured from Tangier'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 Tangier.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tangier
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Tangier
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 Tangier average
Your land is one point inside Tangier
Everything above resolves to Tangier as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 346 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Accomack County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Tangier Average
Tangier Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Tangier
- ●One soil character for all of Tangier
- ●Frost dates read at Tangier's scale: Mar 10 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tangier's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tangier
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tangier, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tangier averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tangier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tangier average
How we know this about Tangier
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 Accomack County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Tangier
When does frost risk typically end in Tangier?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tangier 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 Tangier?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tangier 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 Tangier?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tangier 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 Tangier?
The federal record around Tangier is light — 5 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (5), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Tangier?
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 Tangier's scale — its 8a band and its 268-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tangier'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 Tangier’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tangier's own scale — the 346 acres it covers and 5 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tangier's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 5 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tangier, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tangier's boundary and the 346 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 Tangier's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Tangier checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tangier has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Accomack County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tangier's 346 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 Tangier's 346 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tangier you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 346 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Tangier-wide figureread your own land →