Afton, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — 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, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Afton, 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 Afton 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 Afton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Afton — the short answer
Afton, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- 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 7b is Afton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Afton's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Afton
Each reading below is measured for Afton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAfton runs about 222 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
MeasuredAfton sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Afton is in
Afton sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Afton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Nelson County is mostly Blue Ridge. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Afton
Every plant below cleared Afton's own zone 7b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Afton?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Afton
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Afton, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Afton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Afton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Andrew Hodson PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BLUE RIDGE VENEER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- AMERICAN FIBERS & YARNS AFTON FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- WILLIAM H CRADDOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Afton Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Afton Mountain Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- RIDGEWAY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- PROCESS ENGINEERING & FABRICATION, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Afton MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- GREENWOOD CHEMICAL COBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- GREENWOOD CHEMICAL COSuperfund · 3.0 mi
- JAMES H. RHODESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Afton'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 Afton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Afton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Afton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Afton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Afton — Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (212 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Afton
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 Afton average
Your land is one point inside Afton
Everything above resolves to Afton 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 Afton Average
Afton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Afton
- ●One soil character for all of Afton
- ●Frost dates read at Afton's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Afton's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Afton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Afton, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Afton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Afton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Afton average
How we know this about Afton
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 Afton’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 Afton
When does frost risk typically end in Afton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Afton typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Afton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Afton typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Afton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Afton sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 25, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Afton?
The federal record around Afton is a meaningful one — 325 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (212), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Afton?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Afton's scale — its 7b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Afton'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 Afton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Afton's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,441 acres it covers and 325 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Afton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Afton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 8 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 325 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Afton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Afton's boundary and the 1,441 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Afton sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Aftonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Afton's 1,441 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nelson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nelson 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 Nelson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Afton's 1,441 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Afton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,441 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Afton-wide figureread your own land →