Virgie, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — 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, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Virgie, 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 Virgie 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 Virgie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Virgie — the short answer
Virgie, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 655 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 655 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 7a is Virgie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Virgie's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Virgie
Each reading below is measured for Virgie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVirgie runs about 216 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
MeasuredVirgie sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Virgie is in
Virgie sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Virgie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Virgie
Every plant below cleared Virgie's own zone 7a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Virgie?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Virgie
Survey cells within 31 miles of Virgie checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 56 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Virgie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Virgie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Johnson Full ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Clayton Little GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- South Central Virgkyma Re52329Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Virgie Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Jerry C Johnsons GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Virgie Save A LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Iron Eagle ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Virgie Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Virgie Double KwikUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Funeral Home PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Caney Happy MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Cecil Little GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Virgie'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 Virgie.
Total Sites
167
within ~10 miles of Virgie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Virgie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Virgie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Virgie, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 136 sites within ~10 miles of Virgie. 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 Virgie
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 Virgie average
Your land is one point inside Virgie
Everything above resolves to Virgie as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 655 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 Virgie Average
Virgie Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Virgie
- ●One soil character for all of Virgie
- ●Frost dates read at Virgie's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Virgie's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Virgie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Virgie, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Virgie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Virgie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Virgie average
How we know this about Virgie
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 Virgie’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 Virgie
When does frost risk typically end in Virgie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Virgie 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 Virgie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Virgie typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Virgie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Virgie sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 21, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Virgie?
The federal record around Virgie is a meaningful one — 167 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (136), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Virgie?
From about Oct 5 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 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 Nov 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Virgie's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Virgie'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 Virgie’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Virgie's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 655 acres it covers and 167 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Virgie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Virgie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 4 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 167 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Virgie, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Virgie's boundary and the 655 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Virgie's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Virgie 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 Virgie's 655 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike County
- The growing challenges every Kentucky grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kentucky
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Virgie's 655 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Virgie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 655 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Virgie-wide figureread your own land →
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