Alexandria, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Alexandria, 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 Alexandria 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 Alexandria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alexandria — the short answer
Alexandria, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 10K 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 8a is Alexandria's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alexandria's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alexandria
Each reading below is measured for Alexandria itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlexandria runs about 258 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
MeasuredAlexandria sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Alexandria is in
Alexandria sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alexandria's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alexandria city.
What Grows in Alexandria
Every plant below cleared Alexandria's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alexandria?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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.
Documented around Alexandria
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Alexandria, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Alexandria
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alexandria. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T C WILLIAMS HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- T. C. WILLIAMS HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2200 ft
- EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2500 ft
- EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Virginia Theological SeminaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- KING DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 2600 ft
- DEFENSE INVESTIGATIVE SERVICEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- King Street ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- IVY HILL CEMETERY CO OF ALEXANDRIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LEXUS OF ALEXANDRIABrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 7-Eleven Inc 40318Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Fairlington Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alexandria'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 Alexandria.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alexandria
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alexandria
Highest-Severity Sites
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Alexandria
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 Alexandria average
Your land is one point inside Alexandria
Everything above resolves to Alexandria as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Alexandria Average
Alexandria Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Alexandria
- ●One soil character for all of Alexandria
- ●Frost dates read at Alexandria's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alexandria's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alexandria
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alexandria, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alexandria averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alexandria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alexandria average
How we know this about Alexandria
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 Alexandria’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 Alexandria
When does frost risk typically end in Alexandria?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alexandria typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Alexandria?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alexandria typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alexandria?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alexandria sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 13, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alexandria?
The federal record around Alexandria is a meaningful one — 5,096 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,767), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Alexandria?
From about Oct 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 Nov 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alexandria's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alexandria'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 Alexandria’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Alexandria's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,558 acres it covers and 5,096 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alexandria's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alexandria's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 27 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,096 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alexandria, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alexandria's boundary and the 9,558 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alexandria's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Alexandrialydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alexandria's 9,558 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alexandria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alexandria 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 Alexandria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alexandria's 9,558 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alexandria you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,558 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Alexandria-wide figureread your own land →