Charlottesville, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Charlottesville, 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 Charlottesville 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 Charlottesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Charlottesville — the short answer
Charlottesville, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Charlottesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Charlottesville's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Charlottesville
Each reading below is measured for Charlottesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCharlottesville runs about 235 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
MeasuredCharlottesville 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 Charlottesville is in
Charlottesville sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Charlottesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Charlottesville city.
What Grows in Charlottesville
Every plant below cleared Charlottesville's own zone 7b and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Charlottesville?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Charlottesville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Charlottesville, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Charlottesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Charlottesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROSE HILL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- R.E. MICHEL; COUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- LUNA LABS USA, LLCBrownfields · 500 ft
- JOHNSON & TAYLOR, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- OVENAIRE-AUDIO-CARPENTERToxics Release Inventory · 500 ft
- UPSTATEBrownfields · 500 ft
- ANGLIN DONALD LUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- PROPERTY OF FORMER CONTRACTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BURLEY MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- L.A. LACY, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CENTRAL COCA-COLA BOTTLING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Preston Avenue ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Charlottesville'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 Charlottesville.
Total Sites
512
within ~10 miles of Charlottesville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Charlottesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Charlottesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Charlottesville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 363 sites within ~10 miles of Charlottesville. 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 Charlottesville
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 Charlottesville average
Your land is one point inside Charlottesville
Everything above resolves to Charlottesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 city 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 Charlottesville Average
Charlottesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Charlottesville
- ●One soil character for all of Charlottesville
- ●Frost dates read at Charlottesville's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Charlottesville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Charlottesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Charlottesville, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Charlottesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Charlottesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Charlottesville average
How we know this about Charlottesville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Charlottesville’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Charlottesville
When does frost risk typically end in Charlottesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Charlottesville typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Charlottesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Charlottesville typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Charlottesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Charlottesville sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 31, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Charlottesville?
The federal record around Charlottesville is a meaningful one — 512 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (363), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Charlottesville?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Charlottesville's scale — its 7b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Charlottesville'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 Charlottesville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Charlottesville's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,557 acres it covers and 512 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Charlottesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Charlottesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 14 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 512 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Charlottesville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Charlottesville's boundary and the 6,557 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Charlottesville's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Charlottesvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Charlottesville's 6,557 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Charlottesville County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Charlottesville 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 Charlottesville County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Charlottesville's 6,557 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Charlottesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,557 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Charlottesville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaCharlottesville sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides