Brandy Station, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brandy Station, 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 Brandy Station 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 Brandy Station — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brandy Station — the short answer
Brandy Station, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 422 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- 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
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 422 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 Brandy Station's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brandy Station's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brandy Station
Each reading below is measured for Brandy Station itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrandy Station runs about 223 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
MeasuredBrandy Station 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 Brandy Station is in
Brandy Station sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brandy Station's own centroid rather than borrowed from Culpeper County.
What Grows in Brandy Station
Every plant below cleared Brandy Station's own zone 7a and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brandy Station?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (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 Brandy Station
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Brandy Station, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brandy Station
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brandy Station. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 47R 19C ARTHUR BNitrate · 2000 ft
- Kyle Commercial PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FISHER AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BRANDY VOL FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Rosson-Troilo MotorUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- VA State Police DIV 2 HEADQUARTERS - CULPEPERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- J W Sieg and Company IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Culpeper Petroleum Coop Inc at Brandy StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- EDDIES AUTO BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- Ratrie FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Holmes Equipment CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- ELKWOOD MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brandy Station'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 Brandy Station.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brandy Station
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brandy Station
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brandy Station, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Brandy Station — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (213 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Brandy Station
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 Brandy Station average
Your land is one point inside Brandy Station
Everything above resolves to Brandy Station as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 422 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 Brandy Station Average
Brandy Station Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Brandy Station
- ●One soil character for all of Brandy Station
- ●Frost dates read at Brandy Station's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brandy Station's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brandy Station
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brandy Station, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brandy Station averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brandy Station — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brandy Station average
How we know this about Brandy Station
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 Brandy Station’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 Brandy Station
When does frost risk typically end in Brandy Station?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brandy Station typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Brandy Station?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brandy Station 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 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brandy Station?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brandy Station sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 23, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brandy Station?
The federal record around Brandy Station is a meaningful one — 336 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (213), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Brandy Station?
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 Brandy Station's scale — its 7a band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brandy Station'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 Brandy Station’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brandy Station's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 422 acres it covers and 336 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brandy Station's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brandy Station's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 6 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 336 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brandy Station, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brandy Station's boundary and the 422 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brandy Station's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brandy Stationlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brandy Station's 422 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Culpeper County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Culpeper 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 Culpeper County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brandy Station's 422 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brandy Station you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 422 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Brandy Station-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaBrandy Station sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.