Brightwood, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Brightwood, 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 Brightwood 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 Brightwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brightwood — the short answer
Brightwood, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Brightwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brightwood's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brightwood
Each reading below is measured for Brightwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrightwood runs about 224 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
MeasuredBrightwood 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 Brightwood is in
Brightwood sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brightwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Brightwood
Every plant below cleared Brightwood's own zone 7a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brightwood?
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 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 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Brightwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Brightwood, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brightwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brightwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Morgan Elsie DUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Brightwood General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- W.J. CARPENTER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JIM CARPENTER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Jags Market and DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Madison Express Mart LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MRS EDITH ANDERSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Former S.M. Bruce Svc Station / General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- LACEYS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Vavin Limited PartnershipUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 7-ELEVEN #21482Brownfields · 3.3 mi
- Utz & Shepherd Distributors IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brightwood'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 Brightwood.
Total Sites
140
within ~10 miles of Brightwood
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brightwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brightwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brightwood, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 106 sites within ~10 miles of Brightwood. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Brightwood
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 Brightwood average
Your land is one point inside Brightwood
Everything above resolves to Brightwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Brightwood Average
Brightwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Brightwood
- ●One soil character for all of Brightwood
- ●Frost dates read at Brightwood's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brightwood's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brightwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brightwood, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brightwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brightwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brightwood average
How we know this about Brightwood
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 Brightwood’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 Brightwood
When does frost risk typically end in Brightwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brightwood 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 Brightwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brightwood typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brightwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brightwood sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 25, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brightwood?
The federal record around Brightwood shows 140 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (106), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Brightwood?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brightwood's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brightwood'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 Brightwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brightwood's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,186 acres it covers and 140 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brightwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brightwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 8 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 140 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brightwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brightwood's boundary and the 3,186 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brightwood's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brightwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brightwood's 3,186 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brightwood's 3,186 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brightwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,186 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Brightwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaBrightwood sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides