Charles City County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Charles City County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Charles City 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 Charles City County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Charles City County — the short answer
Charles City County, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 117K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 117K 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 Charles City County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Charles City County's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Charles City County
Across a year, Charles City County accumulates about 4,309 growing degree days above 50°F, about 575 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 115 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 1,936 hours below 45°F, 502 fewer 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 Charles City County
Across Charles City County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Craven, Chickahominy, and Emporia are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.2–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
33%
Hydric soils
25%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Charles City County
The USDA soil survey maps 43% of Charles City County as moderately well drained — but another 45% drains differently: 17% poorly drained, 15% well drained.
Craven is the most extensive named soil at 8% of mapped acres, then Chickahominy (8%) and Emporia (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 Charles City County
Each reading below is measured for Charles City 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 Charles City County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Charles City County runs about pH 4.2–5.3, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 25% of Charles City County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCharles City County runs about 241 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
The kind of country Charles City County is in
Charles City County sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Charles City County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Charles City County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 241-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 Charles City County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Charles City County
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Charles City County, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Charles City County
USGS estimates 19,146 lb of Glyphosate on Charles City County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (6,679 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (3,935 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Charles City — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Charles City — 68 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Charles City is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Charles City County
Closest first, across Charles City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BELL ATLANTIC VA INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Edward C. Major (Building Demolished)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Walter JonesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- VDOT-Charles City County Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Haupts StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Courthouse Station Conven. Store (Demolished)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Charitys Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- JB's Country Store (Permanently Closed)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Hopewell VORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Bell Atlantic - Charles CityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Charles City County Fuel FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Charles City County School BoardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Charles City 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 Charles City County.
Total Sites
68
across Charles City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Charles City
Severity Distribution
across Charles City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Charles City County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 23 sites across Charles City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Charles City 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 Charles City County average
Your land is one point inside Charles City County
Everything above resolves to Charles City County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 117K 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 Charles City County Average
Charles City County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Charles City County
- ●One soil character for all of Charles City County
- ●Frost dates read at Charles City County's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Charles City County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Charles City County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Charles City County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Charles City County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Charles City County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Charles City County average
How we know this about Charles City 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 Charles City County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Charles City County
When does frost risk typically end in Charles City County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Charles City County typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Charles City County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Charles City County sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 4, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Charles City County?
The federal record around Charles City County shows 68 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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.
Everything above is measured at Charles City County's scale — its 7b band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Charles City 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 Charles City County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Charles City County's own scale — its own ~241-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 68 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Charles City County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Charles City County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Charles City CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 68 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Charles City County's boundary and the 117,057 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Charles City County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Charles City County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Charles City County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
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 Charles City County — the ~241 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 Charles City County's 117,057 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 68 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 Charles City Countyread your own land →