Annandale, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Annandale, 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 Annandale 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 Annandale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Annandale — the short answer
Annandale, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Annandale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Annandale's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Annandale
Each reading below is measured for Annandale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAnnandale runs about 236 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
MeasuredAnnandale 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 Annandale is in
Annandale sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Annandale's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fairfax County is mostly Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Annandale
Every plant below cleared Annandale's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Annandale?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Annandale
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Annandale, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Annandale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Annandale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- PRIME CLEANERSBrownfields · 850 ft
- PAULS AUTO SRVBrownfields · 950 ft
- JIFFY LUBE # 36Brownfields · 1000 ft
- WALGREENS #13970Brownfields · 1000 ft
- JIFFY LUBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ANNANDALE EXXONBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Exxon R/S 25467Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- AMERICAN CAR WASH CORPBrownfields · 1000 ft
- SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Liberty Gas Station and Car WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Sunoco VA 012Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Annandale'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 Annandale.
Total Sites
3,675
within ~10 miles of Annandale
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
28 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Annandale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Annandale
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Annandale
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 Annandale average
Your land is one point inside Annandale
Everything above resolves to Annandale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Annandale Average
Annandale Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Annandale
- ●One soil character for all of Annandale
- ●Frost dates read at Annandale's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Annandale's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Annandale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Annandale, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Annandale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Annandale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Annandale average
How we know this about Annandale
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 Annandale’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 Annandale
When does frost risk typically end in Annandale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Annandale typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Annandale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Annandale typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Annandale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Annandale sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 31, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Annandale?
The federal record around Annandale is a meaningful one — 3,675 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,928), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Annandale?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Annandale's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Annandale'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 Annandale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Annandale's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,023 acres it covers and 3,675 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Annandale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Annandale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 14 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,675 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Annandale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Annandale's boundary and the 5,023 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Annandale sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Annandalelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Annandale's 5,023 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairfax 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 Fairfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Annandale's 5,023 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Annandale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,023 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Annandale-wide figureread your own land →