Bassett, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Bassett, 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 Bassett 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 Bassett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bassett — the short answer
Bassett, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Bassett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bassett's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bassett
Each reading below is measured for Bassett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBassett runs about 219 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
MeasuredBassett 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 Bassett is in
Bassett sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bassett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henry County.
What Grows in Bassett
Every plant below cleared Bassett's own zone 7b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bassett?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Bassett
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Bassett, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bassett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bassett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPRINT/BASSETT CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BULLOCK & FOLEY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Fas Mart 124Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BASSETT FURNITURE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JOHN D. BASSETT MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- THE IVY TREEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BFI BASSETTToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- BFI BASSETTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BASSETT TABLE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AEROQUIP CORPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- AEROQUIP CORPToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- BASSETT COMMUNITY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bassett'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 Bassett.
Total Sites
525
within ~10 miles of Bassett
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bassett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bassett
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bassett, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bassett — Toxics Release Inventory (44 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (391 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Bassett
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 Bassett average
Your land is one point inside Bassett
Everything above resolves to Bassett as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Bassett Average
Bassett Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Bassett
- ●One soil character for all of Bassett
- ●Frost dates read at Bassett's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bassett's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bassett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bassett, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bassett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bassett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bassett average
How we know this about Bassett
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 Bassett’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 Bassett
When does frost risk typically end in Bassett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bassett typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Bassett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bassett typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bassett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bassett sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 23, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bassett?
The federal record around Bassett is a meaningful one — 525 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (391), 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 Bassett?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bassett's scale — its 7b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bassett'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 Bassett’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bassett's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,211 acres it covers and 525 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bassett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bassett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 6 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 525 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bassett, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bassett's boundary and the 2,211 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bassett's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bassettlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bassett's 2,211 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henry 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 Henry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bassett's 2,211 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bassett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,211 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 Bassett-wide figureread your own land →
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