Virginia, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Virginia, 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 Virginia 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 Virginia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Virginia — the short answer
Virginia, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 772 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 772 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 6a is Virginia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Virginia's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Virginia
Each reading below is measured for Virginia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVirginia runs about 212 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredVirginia sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Virginia is in
Virginia sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Virginia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cass County.
What Grows in Virginia
Every plant below cleared Virginia's own zone 6a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Virginia?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Virginia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Virginia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fast FuelsUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Casey's General Store #3472Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Cass County Ser CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Krohe RefrigerationUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- REYNOLD AND SONSBrownfields · 850 ft
- Reynold's ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BPS Retail Fuels, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Nelson Oil Co. (formerly Cass Co FS)Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Ted Harrison Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WARELUBCO INC WAREHOUSEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- MeccaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Cass County Telephone CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Virginia'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 Virginia.
Total Sites
47
within ~10 miles of Virginia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Virginia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Virginia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Virginia, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Virginia. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Virginia
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 Virginia average
Your land is one point inside Virginia
Everything above resolves to Virginia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 772 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 city 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 Virginia Average
Virginia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Virginia
- ●One soil character for all of Virginia
- ●Frost dates read at Virginia's scale: Apr 2 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Virginia's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Virginia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Virginia, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Virginia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Virginia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Virginia average
How we know this about Virginia
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Virginia’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Virginia
When does frost risk typically end in Virginia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Virginia typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Virginia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Virginia typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Virginia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Virginia sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 17, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Virginia?
The federal record around Virginia is a meaningful one — 47 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Virginia?
From about Oct 1 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 Oct 31 (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 Oct 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Virginia's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Virginia'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 Virginia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Virginia's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 772 acres it covers and 47 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Virginia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Virginia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Oct 31 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 47 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Virginia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Virginia's boundary and the 772 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Virginia's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Virginia's 772 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cass County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cass County
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Cass County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Virginia's 772 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Virginia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 772 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Virginia-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisVirginia sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides