Arlington, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Arlington, 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 Arlington 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 Arlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arlington — the short answer
Arlington, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 17K 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 Arlington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arlington's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arlington
Each reading below is measured for Arlington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArlington runs about 255 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
MeasuredArlington 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 Arlington is in
Arlington sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arlington's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Arlington County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Arlington
Every plant below cleared Arlington's own zone 7b and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arlington?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Arlington
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Arlington, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Arlington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arlington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- L&M AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- VA SQUARE FIRST ASSOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WHITE PEARL CLEANERSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- JAPANESE AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ALS MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PARKING LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BELL ATLANTICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #10968Brownfields · 1800 ft
- NORTHERN STAR RUBBER RECYCLINGToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- SPECIALTY AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- JACKS AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CAFRITZ CO VIRGINIA SQUAREBrownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arlington'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 Arlington.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arlington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arlington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arlington, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 73 sites within ~10 miles of Arlington. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Arlington
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 Arlington average
Your land is one point inside Arlington
Everything above resolves to Arlington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 17K 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 Arlington Average
Arlington Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Arlington
- ●One soil character for all of Arlington
- ●Frost dates read at Arlington's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arlington's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arlington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arlington, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arlington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arlington average
How we know this about Arlington
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 Arlington’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 Arlington
When does frost risk typically end in Arlington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arlington typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Arlington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arlington typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arlington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arlington sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 12, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arlington?
The federal record around Arlington is a meaningful one — 5,915 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,242), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Arlington?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arlington's scale — its 7b band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arlington'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 Arlington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Arlington's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 16,638 acres it covers and 5,915 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arlington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arlington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 26 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,915 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arlington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arlington's boundary and the 16,638 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Arlington sits in the Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Arlingtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arlington's 16,638 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Arlington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Arlington 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 Arlington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arlington's 16,638 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arlington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,638 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Arlington-wide figureread your own land →