The Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) spans USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The Middleburg Virginia growing region covers Loudoun and Fauquier counties — the two Piedmont counties of the federally recognized Middleburg Virginia viticultural area (27 CFR §9.225) — where USDA zone 7a and a roughly 217-to-218-day frost-free season shape the growing calendar between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Potomac River. Expect tomato, dogwood, grape, and apple to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
The Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) spans Virginia.
Your yard isn't all of the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier).
The Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) spans USDA zones 7a, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
The Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) — the short answer
The Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier): USDA zones 7a, 217–218 frost-free days, in Virginia.
- USDA zones
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 217–218 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Counties
- 2
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)
Plants matched to the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)'s USDA zones 7a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)’s USDA zones 7a — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across two member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Alfisols, at 55% of mapped acres, followed by Ultisols (33%) and Inceptisols (11%). Five soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Purcellville, Tankerville, and Middleburg.
68% of those acres are well drained, and another 13% somewhat poorly drained, 9% moderately well drained. Topsoil pH runs 5.0–5.8 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 26% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
5.0–5.8
Hydric soils
6%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Loudoun County holds the most wetland ground here, at 7% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier). Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records68% of the mapped acres across the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) are well drained — ground that drains quickly. That is area-weighted across all two of its mapped counties.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) runs pH 5.0–5.8 — acidic in all two of them.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) — and how to grow with it.
Across the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)'s 2 counties the federal record holds 1,270 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks (655), Brownfields (507) and Toxics Release Inventory (40). The heaviest single county is Loudoun County, with 891.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 2 counties in the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)
Everything above resolves to the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 7a. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) Average
Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)
- ●One soil character for all of Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)'s 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) average
How we know this about the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)
What hardiness zone is the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)?
The Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) spans USDA hardiness zones 7a, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)'s counties mostly run 217 to 218 frost-free days, median 218 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 2 member counties). That 1-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 2 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)?
Across the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier), the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Apr 1 and Apr 1 (median Apr 1), and their first fall freeze between Nov 4 and Nov 5. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Apr 22, and elevation decides which end of a 0-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)?
The Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)'s conditions suit plants such as Tomato, Dogwood, Grape, Apple, Peanut. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) defined?
The Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) is defined here as a curated cluster of 2 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) cover?
The Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier) spans Virginia. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Appalachia, Piedmont, Tidewater & Chesapeake, Blue Ridge, Delmarva Peninsula, and Hampton Roads / Coastal Southeast Virginia share at least one state with the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier). Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)'s own scale — the zone 7a band across its footprint, a median 218-day season across its 2 counties and 1,270 documented federal contamination records across its 2 counties, 891 of them in Loudoun County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 7a aggregated across all 2 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 2 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 2 counties run 217 to 218 frost-free days, median 218NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 1,270 documented federal contamination records across its 2 counties, 891 of them in Loudoun County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 55% Alfisols, topsoil pH 5.0–5.8, area-weighted across its 2 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 7afrom Virginia
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 1-day range your ground sits at — 217 days at one extreme, 218 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Middleburg Virginia (Loudoun & Fauquier)
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across Virginia
The vast eastern mountain region of steep hollows, thin acidic soils, and short upland seasons — apples, brambles, ramps, and forest crops on hard-won ground. (Union of the core Appalachian ecoregions.)
The rolling foothill belt between the Appalachians and the coastal plain, defined by heavy red clay soils that reward amendment and drainage. (Southern Piedmont; the Northern Piedmont is a separate ecoregion.)
The low, flat, tidal coastal plain around Chesapeake Bay — sandy soils, mild maritime winters, and a long season for vegetables and Southern staples.
The high, cool, forested spine of the southern Appalachians — layered ridges, acidic mountain loams, and a short upland season suited to apples and cold-hardy crops.
A flat coastal-plain peninsula of sandy, well-drained soils between the Chesapeake and the Atlantic — a major sweet-corn, soybean, and produce region.
The only USDA zone 8b band in Virginia. Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay maritime moderation plus dense urban heat give the waterfront cities of Hampton Roads the state's warmest winters and longest season — roughly 276 to 289 frost-free days on the water (Hampton runs 289), about 60 days longer than the inland coastal plain and over 100 days longer than the mountains. Growers here overwinter hardy greens and roots, and figs and other tender perennials that fail elsewhere in Virginia routinely survive. Inland edges of the metro — Chesapeake, Suffolk, Isle of Wight, Newport News — cool to 8a, so the frost-free window shortens as you move off the tidal shoreline.