Brucetown, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brucetown, 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 Brucetown 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 Brucetown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brucetown — the short answer
Brucetown, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 362 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 362 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 Brucetown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brucetown's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brucetown
Each reading below is measured for Brucetown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrucetown runs about 214 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
MeasuredBrucetown 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 Brucetown is in
Brucetown sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brucetown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Frederick County.
What Grows in Brucetown
Every plant below cleared Brucetown's own zone 7a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brucetown?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Brucetown
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Brucetown, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brucetown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brucetown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRUCETOWN MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CLEARBROOK WELDING & REPAIR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Clear Brook ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CARMEUSE AMERICAS – WINCHESTERToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- GLOBAL STONE CHEMSTONE CORPORATION - CLEARBROOKToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- Carmeuse Lime and Stone-WinchesterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TITAN VIRGINIA READY MIX LLC - CLEAR BROOKToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- CLEAR BROOK SHOPPING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- VIRGINIA HARBOR SERVICES INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- Olde Stone Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- VERNON E STUP COBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- MMS WINCHESTERBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brucetown'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 Brucetown.
Total Sites
825
within ~10 miles of Brucetown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brucetown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brucetown
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Brucetown
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 Brucetown average
Your land is one point inside Brucetown
Everything above resolves to Brucetown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 362 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 Brucetown Average
Brucetown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Brucetown
- ●One soil character for all of Brucetown
- ●Frost dates read at Brucetown's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brucetown's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brucetown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brucetown, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brucetown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brucetown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brucetown average
How we know this about Brucetown
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 Brucetown’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 Brucetown
When does frost risk typically end in Brucetown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brucetown typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Brucetown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brucetown typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brucetown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brucetown sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 20, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brucetown?
The federal record around Brucetown is a meaningful one — 825 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (381), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Brucetown?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brucetown's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brucetown'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 Brucetown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brucetown's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 362 acres it covers and 825 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brucetown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brucetown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 3 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 825 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brucetown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brucetown's boundary and the 362 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brucetown's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brucetownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brucetown's 362 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Frederick County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Frederick 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 Frederick County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brucetown's 362 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brucetown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 362 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 Brucetown-wide figureread your own land →