Arlington County, in 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Arlington County lies within the Northern Virginia (DC Metro) and the Piedmont — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Arlington County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Arlington County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Arlington County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arlington County — the short answer
Arlington County, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 17K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Arlington County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arlington County's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Arlington County
Across a year, Arlington County accumulates about 4,053 growing degree days above 50°F, about 319 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 88 of Virginia’s 133 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 2,459 hours below 45°F, 21 more than the Virginia middle of 2,438. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Arlington County
Across Arlington County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Glenelg, Sassafras, and Manor are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
0%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Arlington County
Glenelg is the most extensive named soil at 44% of mapped acres, then Sassafras (20%) and Manor (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Arlington County
Each reading below is measured for Arlington County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Arlington County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Arlington County runs about pH 4.6–5.0, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredArlington County runs about 255 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
MeasuredArlington County 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 Arlington County is in
Arlington County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (39%), Northern Piedmont (34%) and Piedmont (28%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Arlington County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Arlington County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 255-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile.
Is it too late to plant in Arlington County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Arlington County
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Arlington County, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle140 documented records
- monarch butterfly138 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Arlington County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Arlington County — 519 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Arlington County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Arlington County
Closest first, across Arlington County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- L&M AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- VA SQUARE FIRST ASSOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WHITE PEARL CLEANERSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- JAPANESE AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ALS MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PARKING LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BELL ATLANTICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #10968Brownfields · 1800 ft
- NORTHERN STAR RUBBER RECYCLINGToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- SPECIALTY AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- JACKS AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CAFRITZ CO VIRGINIA SQUAREBrownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arlington County'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 Arlington County.
Total Sites
519
across Arlington County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Arlington County
Severity Distribution
across Arlington County
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 Arlington County
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 Arlington County average
Your land is one point inside Arlington County
Everything above resolves to Arlington County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 17K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Arlington County Average
Arlington County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Arlington County
- ●One soil character for all of Arlington County
- ●Frost dates read at Arlington County's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arlington County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Arlington County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arlington County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arlington County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arlington County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arlington County average
How we know this about Arlington County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Arlington County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Arlington County
When does frost risk typically end in Arlington County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arlington County typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
How long is the growing season in Arlington County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arlington County sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 12, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arlington County?
The federal record around Arlington County is a meaningful one — 519 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (276), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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.
Everything above is measured at Arlington County's scale — its 7b band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arlington County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Virginia's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Arlington County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Arlington County's own scale — its own ~255-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 519 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arlington County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arlington County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Arlington CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 519 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Arlington County's boundary and the 16,638 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Arlington County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Arlington County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Arlington County — the ~255 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arlington County's 16,638 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 519 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Arlington Countyread your own land →