Willis Wharf, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Willis Wharf, 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 Willis Wharf 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 Willis Wharf — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Willis Wharf — the short answer
Willis Wharf, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 314 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 314 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 Willis Wharf's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Willis Wharf's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Willis Wharf
Each reading below is measured for Willis Wharf itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWillis Wharf runs about 267 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
MeasuredWillis Wharf 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 Willis Wharf is in
Willis Wharf sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Willis Wharf's own centroid rather than borrowed from Northampton County.
What Grows in Willis Wharf
Every plant below cleared Willis Wharf's own zone 8a and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Willis Wharf?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — 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 Willis Wharf
Survey cells within 31 miles of Willis Wharf checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 46 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Willis Wharf
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Willis Wharf. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LORSH-TERRY PARTNERSHIP PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BALLARD BROTHERS FISH COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 64J 30Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 64J 31Nitrate · 1900 ft
- Occohannock Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- AMERICAN ORIGINAL FOODSToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- COLONNA GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- C.J. PRETTYMAN; JR TRUCKING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MILES-MASSEY CHRY-PLY-DODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EXMORE-WILLIE WHARF ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Hare Valley Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Community Fire Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Willis Wharf'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 Willis Wharf.
Total Sites
120
within ~10 miles of Willis Wharf
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Willis Wharf
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Willis Wharf
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Willis Wharf, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 101 sites within ~10 miles of Willis Wharf. 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 Willis Wharf
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 Willis Wharf average
Your land is one point inside Willis Wharf
Everything above resolves to Willis Wharf as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 314 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 Willis Wharf Average
Willis Wharf Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Willis Wharf
- ●One soil character for all of Willis Wharf
- ●Frost dates read at Willis Wharf's scale: Mar 12 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Willis Wharf's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Willis Wharf
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Willis Wharf, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Willis Wharf averages can't show:
We read public map data around Willis Wharf — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Willis Wharf average
How we know this about Willis Wharf
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 Willis Wharf’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 Willis Wharf
When does frost risk typically end in Willis Wharf?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Willis Wharf typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Willis Wharf?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Willis Wharf typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Willis Wharf?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Willis Wharf sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 20, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Willis Wharf?
The federal record around Willis Wharf shows 120 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Willis Wharf?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Willis Wharf's scale — its 8a band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Willis Wharf'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 Willis Wharf’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Willis Wharf's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 314 acres it covers and 120 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Willis Wharf's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Willis Wharf's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Dec 4 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 120 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Willis Wharf, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Willis Wharf's boundary and the 314 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Willis Wharf's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Willis Wharf 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 Willis Wharf's 314 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Northampton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Northampton 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 Northampton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Willis Wharf's 314 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Willis Wharf you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 314 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 Willis Wharf-wide figureread your own land →