Abbs Valley, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Abbs Valley, 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 Abbs Valley 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 Abbs Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Abbs Valley — the short answer
Abbs Valley, Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6b is Abbs Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Abbs Valley's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Abbs Valley
Each reading below is measured for Abbs Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAbbs Valley runs about 205 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
MeasuredAbbs Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Abbs Valley is in
Abbs Valley sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Abbs Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tazewell County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Abbs Valley
Every plant below cleared Abbs Valley's own zone 6b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Abbs Valley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Abbs Valley
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Abbs Valley, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Abbs Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Abbs Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JP Industrial Services IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Crazy Horse General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- D.B. DANIEL & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Mcd-0039Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- Tazewell County LandfillUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- VDOT - Springville Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- TECHNIFAB OF VIRGINIA INCBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- Tims RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- PYOTT BOONE ELECTRONICS, INC.Brownfields · 4.5 mi
- JOY GLOBAL UNDERGROUND MINING LLCBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- BISHOP MINING COMPLEXBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- VA Hillbilly 4Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Abbs Valley'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 Abbs Valley.
Total Sites
178
within ~10 miles of Abbs Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Abbs Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Abbs Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Abbs Valley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 111 sites within ~10 miles of Abbs Valley. 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 Abbs Valley
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 Abbs Valley average
Your land is one point inside Abbs Valley
Everything above resolves to Abbs Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Abbs Valley Average
Abbs Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Abbs Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Abbs Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Abbs Valley's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Abbs Valley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Abbs Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Abbs Valley, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Abbs Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Abbs Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Abbs Valley average
How we know this about Abbs Valley
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 Abbs Valley’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 Abbs Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Abbs Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Abbs Valley typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Abbs Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Abbs Valley typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Abbs Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Abbs Valley sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 14, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Abbs Valley?
The federal record around Abbs Valley is a meaningful one — 178 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (111), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Abbs Valley?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Abbs Valley's scale — its 6b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Abbs Valley'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 Abbs Valley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Abbs Valley's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,453 acres it covers and 178 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Abbs Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Abbs Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 28 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 178 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Abbs Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Abbs Valley's boundary and the 1,453 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Abbs Valley sits in the Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Abbs Valleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Abbs Valley's 1,453 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tazewell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tazewell 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 Tazewell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Abbs Valley's 1,453 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Abbs Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,453 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Abbs Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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