Whitesville, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Whitesville, 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 Whitesville 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 Whitesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Whitesville — the short answer
Whitesville, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 220 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- 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
- ~261
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 220 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 Whitesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Whitesville's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Whitesville
Each reading below is measured for Whitesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhitesville runs about 261 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
MeasuredWhitesville 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 Whitesville is in
Whitesville sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Whitesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Accomack County.
What Grows in Whitesville
Every plant below cleared Whitesville's own zone 8a and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Whitesville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Whitesville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Whitesville 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 Whitesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Whitesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Coards GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ASSOCIATED FARMS, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PARKS MOTOR CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WARREN F. NOCK; SRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LEWIS CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Eastern Shore Community Services BoardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Bobs TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- LUNCH BOXUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PARKSLEY MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- VAUGHN TOPPINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KILLMANS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TOWN OF PARKSLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Whitesville'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 Whitesville.
Total Sites
178
within ~10 miles of Whitesville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Whitesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Whitesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Whitesville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Whitesville — CAFO (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (124 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Whitesville
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 Whitesville average
Your land is one point inside Whitesville
Everything above resolves to Whitesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 220 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 Whitesville Average
Whitesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Whitesville
- ●One soil character for all of Whitesville
- ●Frost dates read at Whitesville's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Whitesville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Whitesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Whitesville, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Whitesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Whitesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Whitesville average
How we know this about Whitesville
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 Whitesville’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 Whitesville
When does frost risk typically end in Whitesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Whitesville typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Whitesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Whitesville 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 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Whitesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Whitesville sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 16, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Whitesville?
The federal record around Whitesville shows 178 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Whitesville?
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 Whitesville's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Whitesville'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 Whitesville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Whitesville's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 220 acres it covers and 178 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Whitesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Whitesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 30 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 178 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Whitesville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Whitesville's boundary and the 220 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Whitesville's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Whitesville 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 Whitesville's 220 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 Whitesville's 220 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Whitesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 220 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Whitesville-wide figureread your own land →