Big Island, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Big Island, 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 Big Island 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 Big Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Big Island — the short answer
Big Island, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 527 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 527 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 Big Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Island's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Island
Each reading below is measured for Big Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBig Island runs about 221 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
MeasuredBig Island 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 Big Island is in
Big Island sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Big Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bedford County.
What Grows in Big Island
Every plant below cleared Big Island's own zone 7b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Big Island?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Big Island
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Big Island, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Big Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Big Island Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BELL ATLANTICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Family Entertainment / Sheppards MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- H and H Food MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GP BIG ISLAND LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- GP BIG ISLAND LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- Taylor-Ramsey Corporation Big Island DivisionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Georgia-Pacific Big Island MillUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 36J 6Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- Bedford Co Schools - Big Island ElementaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Hatcher Logging Corp of VaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- VDOT BIG ISLAND AREA HQBrownfields · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Big Island'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 Big Island.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Big Island
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Big Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Big Island, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Big Island. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Big Island
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 Big Island average
Your land is one point inside Big Island
Everything above resolves to Big Island as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 527 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 Big Island Average
Big Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Big Island
- ●One soil character for all of Big Island
- ●Frost dates read at Big Island's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Island's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Island, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Island average
How we know this about Big Island
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 Big Island’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 Big Island
When does frost risk typically end in Big Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Big Island typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Big Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Big Island typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Big Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Big Island sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 22, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Island?
The federal record around Big Island shows 74 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Big Island?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Big Island's scale — its 7b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Big Island'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 Big Island’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Big Island's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 527 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Big Island's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 5 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Island, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Island's boundary and the 527 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Big Island's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Big Islandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Big Island's 527 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bedford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bedford 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 Bedford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Island's 527 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 527 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 Big Island-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Growing region
Nearby growing guides