Bland, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bland, 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 Bland 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 Bland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bland — the short answer
Bland, Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6b is Bland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bland's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bland
Each reading below is measured for Bland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBland runs about 185 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBland sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Bland is in
Bland sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bland County.
What Grows in Bland
Every plant below cleared Bland's own zone 6b and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bland?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Bland
Spotted lanternfly documented 12 miles from Bland, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COUNTY OF BLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Bland Square CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Brushy Mountain MotorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Bland Combined SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PASCOR ATLANTIC CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- PASCOR ATLANTIC CORPBrownfields · 1400 ft
- KIDD CHEVROLET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Rons Little MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GORDONS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- VDOT - Bland Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HITACHI ENERGY USA INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- HITACHI ENERGY USA INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bland'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 Bland.
Total Sites
81
within ~10 miles of Bland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bland, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Bland. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Bland
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 Bland average
Your land is one point inside Bland
Everything above resolves to Bland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Bland Average
Bland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bland
- ●One soil character for all of Bland
- ●Frost dates read at Bland's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bland's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bland, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bland average
How we know this about Bland
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 Bland’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 Bland
When does frost risk typically end in Bland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bland typically lands around Apr 21, 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 May 12.
When is the first frost in Bland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bland typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bland sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 9, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bland?
The federal record around Bland shows 81 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bland?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bland's scale — its 6b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bland'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 Bland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bland's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,324 acres it covers and 81 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 23 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 81 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bland's boundary and the 1,324 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bland's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Blandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bland's 1,324 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bland 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 Bland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bland's 1,324 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,324 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 Bland-wide figureread your own land →
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