Claypool Hill, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Claypool Hill, 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 Claypool Hill 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 Claypool Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Claypool Hill — the short answer
Claypool Hill, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Claypool Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Claypool Hill's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Claypool Hill
Each reading below is measured for Claypool Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClaypool Hill runs about 198 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredClaypool Hill 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 Claypool Hill is in
Claypool Hill sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Claypool Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tazewell County.
What Grows in Claypool Hill
Every plant below cleared Claypool Hill's own zone 7a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Claypool Hill?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Claypool Hill
Survey cells within 31 miles of Claypool Hill checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 39 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Claypool Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Claypool Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fas Mart 429Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Cargo Oil Company IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- RAMEY CHEVROLET INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #2761Brownfields · 1200 ft
- VSP - AREA 28 OFFICE - CLAYPOOLHILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LOWE'S OF CLAYPOOL HILL, VA #1838Brownfields · 1400 ft
- VDOT Claypool Hill Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Darrells Super StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- COLLISION CENTERBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- R&A DISTRIBUTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CUMBERLAND MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SIMMONS RAND COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Claypool Hill'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 Claypool Hill.
Total Sites
157
within ~10 miles of Claypool Hill
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Claypool Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Claypool Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Claypool Hill, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 114 sites within ~10 miles of Claypool Hill. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Claypool Hill
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 Claypool Hill average
Your land is one point inside Claypool Hill
Everything above resolves to Claypool Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Claypool Hill Average
Claypool Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Claypool Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Claypool Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Claypool Hill's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Claypool Hill's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Claypool Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Claypool Hill, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Claypool Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Claypool Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Claypool Hill average
How we know this about Claypool Hill
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 Claypool Hill’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 Claypool Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Claypool Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Claypool Hill typically lands around Apr 10, 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 May 1.
When is the first frost in Claypool Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Claypool Hill typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Claypool Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Claypool Hill sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 11, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Claypool Hill?
The federal record around Claypool Hill shows 157 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (114), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Claypool Hill?
From about Sep 25 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 Oct 25 (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 Oct 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Claypool Hill's scale — its 7a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Claypool Hill'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 Claypool Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Claypool Hill's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,517 acres it covers and 157 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Claypool Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Claypool Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 25 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 157 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Claypool Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Claypool Hill's boundary and the 3,517 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Claypool Hill's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Claypool Hill checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Claypool Hill's 3,517 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tazewell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tazewell 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 Tazewell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Claypool Hill's 3,517 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Claypool Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,517 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Claypool Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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