Catlett, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Catlett, 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 Catlett 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 Catlett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Catlett — the short answer
Catlett, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Catlett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Catlett's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Catlett
Each reading below is measured for Catlett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCatlett runs about 220 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
MeasuredCatlett 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 Catlett is in
Catlett sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Catlett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fauquier County.
What Grows in Catlett
Every plant below cleared Catlett's own zone 7a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Catlett?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 4 — 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 Catlett
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Catlett, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Catlett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Catlett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Trenis ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Catlett Volunteer Fire DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TRUMAN MOOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TRI STATE TOURS OF VIRGINIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DOWNS WILLIAM AUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CEDAR RUN VOLUNTEER RESCUE SQUADUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PENNINGTON FIREARMS RANGEBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- M E Concrete Products CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Willowlyn Farm IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- PEARSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CALVERTON MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CALVERTON WELL CONTAMINATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Catlett'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 Catlett.
Total Sites
438
within ~10 miles of Catlett
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Catlett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Catlett
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Catlett, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Catlett. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Catlett
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 Catlett average
Your land is one point inside Catlett
Everything above resolves to Catlett as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Catlett Average
Catlett Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Catlett
- ●One soil character for all of Catlett
- ●Frost dates read at Catlett's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Catlett's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Catlett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Catlett, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Catlett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Catlett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Catlett average
How we know this about Catlett
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 Catlett’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 Catlett
When does frost risk typically end in Catlett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Catlett 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 Catlett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Catlett typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Catlett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Catlett sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 21, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Catlett?
The federal record around Catlett is a meaningful one — 438 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (238), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Catlett?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Catlett's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Catlett'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 Catlett’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Catlett's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,058 acres it covers and 438 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Catlett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Catlett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 4 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 438 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Catlett, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Catlett's boundary and the 2,058 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Catlett's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Catlettlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Catlett's 2,058 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fauquier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fauquier 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 Fauquier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Catlett's 2,058 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Catlett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,058 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Catlett-wide figureread your own land →