Centreville, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Centreville, 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 Centreville 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 Centreville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Centreville — the short answer
Centreville, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 7b is Centreville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Centreville's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Centreville
Each reading below is measured for Centreville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCentreville runs about 222 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
MeasuredCentreville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Centreville is in
Centreville sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Centreville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fairfax County is mostly Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Centreville
Every plant below cleared Centreville's own zone 7b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Centreville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Centreville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Centreville, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Centreville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Centreville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAIRFAX CLEANERS A - CENTREVILLE SQUAREBrownfields · 1200 ft
- GIANT FOOD STORE 0188 - CENTREWOOD PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NEWGATE SUNOCOBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Sunoco 0760 9977 01Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Sunoco 0759 9160Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NEWGATE CUSTOM CLEANERSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Tosco Mobil #2635021Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MOBIL OIL CORP S S NO FAYBrownfields · 2100 ft
- FORT HILL ASSOCIATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SOUTHLAND CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Sunoco 0060 2672 01Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BENGTSON DEBELL ELKIN & TITUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Centreville'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 Centreville.
Total Sites
1,728
within ~10 miles of Centreville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Centreville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Centreville
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Centreville
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 Centreville average
Your land is one point inside Centreville
Everything above resolves to Centreville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Centreville Average
Centreville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Centreville
- ●One soil character for all of Centreville
- ●Frost dates read at Centreville's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Centreville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Centreville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Centreville, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Centreville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Centreville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Centreville average
How we know this about Centreville
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 Centreville’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 Centreville
When does frost risk typically end in Centreville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Centreville 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 Centreville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Centreville 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 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Centreville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Centreville sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 23, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Centreville?
The federal record around Centreville is a meaningful one — 1,728 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (833), the nearest Brownfields 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 Centreville?
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 Centreville's scale — its 7b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Centreville'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 Centreville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Centreville's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,640 acres it covers and 1,728 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Centreville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Centreville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 6 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,728 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Centreville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Centreville's boundary and the 7,640 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Centreville sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Centrevillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Centreville's 7,640 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairfax 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 Fairfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Centreville's 7,640 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Centreville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,640 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Centreville-wide figureread your own land →