Austinville, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Austinville, 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 Austinville 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 Austinville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Austinville — the short answer
Austinville, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 72 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 72 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 7a is Austinville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Austinville's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Austinville
Each reading below is measured for Austinville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAustinville 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
MeasuredAustinville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Austinville is in
Austinville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Austinville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wythe County.
What Grows in Austinville
Every plant below cleared Austinville's own zone 7a and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Austinville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Austinville
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Austinville, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Austinville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Austinville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Austinville Limestone CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Austinville Concentrator PlantMining · 2100 ft
- Austinville-Ivanhoe MineMining · 2100 ft
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 0.7 mi
- NEW RIVER TRAIL ST PARKBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Austinville Flatwood Pb Zn MineMining · 1.2 mi
- Barndollar ProspectMining · 1.2 mi
- Jackson ProspectMining · 1.5 mi
- Galena ProspectMining · 1.6 mi
- Simmerman ProspectsMining · 1.7 mi
- Simmerman ProspectMining · 1.8 mi
- FAMILY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Austinville'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 Austinville.
Total Sites
222
within ~10 miles of Austinville
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Austinville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Austinville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Austinville, Mining runs higher than the national average — 113 sites within ~10 miles of Austinville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Austinville
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 Austinville average
Your land is one point inside Austinville
Everything above resolves to Austinville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 72 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 Austinville Average
Austinville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Austinville
- ●One soil character for all of Austinville
- ●Frost dates read at Austinville's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Austinville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Austinville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Austinville, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Austinville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Austinville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Austinville average
How we know this about Austinville
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 Austinville’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 Austinville
When does frost risk typically end in Austinville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Austinville typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Austinville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Austinville typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Austinville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Austinville sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 12, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Austinville?
The federal record around Austinville runs heavier than most — 222 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (113), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Austinville?
From about Sep 26 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 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 Oct 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Austinville's scale — its 7a band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Austinville'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 Austinville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Austinville's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 72 acres it covers and 222 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Austinville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Austinville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 26 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 222 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Austinville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Austinville's boundary and the 72 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Austinville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Austinvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Austinville's 72 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wythe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wythe 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 Wythe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Austinville's 72 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Austinville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 72 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Austinville-wide figureread your own land →