Charlottesville city, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Charlottesville city holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Charlottesville city, 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 Charlottesville city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Charlottesville city — the short answer
Charlottesville city, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 7K 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 Charlottesville city's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Charlottesville city's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Charlottesville city
Across a year, Charlottesville city accumulates about 3,678 growing degree days above 50°F, about 56 fewer than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 58 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 2,454 hours below 45°F, 16 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 Charlottesville County
Across Charlottesville County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Culpeper, Elioak, and Glenelg are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a variable surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Charlottesville city
The USDA soil survey maps 68% of Charlottesville city as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 1% somewhat poorly drained, 1% somewhat excessively drained.
Culpeper is the most extensive named soil at 27% of mapped acres, then Elioak (20%) and Glenelg (11%).
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 Charlottesville city
Each reading below is measured for Charlottesville city itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Charlottesville city 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 Charlottesville city runs about pH 5.0–5.5, 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
MeasuredCharlottesville city 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 city 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 city is in
Charlottesville city sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Charlottesville city
We scored all 1,086 plants against Charlottesville city's own USDA zone 7b and its own 235-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 Charlottesville city?
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. 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 Charlottesville city
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Charlottesville city, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly176 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Charlottesville County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Charlottesville County — 190 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Charlottesville County 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 Charlottesville city
Closest first, across Charlottesville County. 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 city'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 city.
Total Sites
190
across Charlottesville County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Charlottesville County
Severity Distribution
across Charlottesville County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Charlottesville city, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 141 sites across Charlottesville County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 city
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 city average
Your land is one point inside Charlottesville city
Everything above resolves to Charlottesville city as a whole — one PHZM band and one county 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 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 Charlottesville city Average
Charlottesville city Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Charlottesville city
- ●One soil character for all of Charlottesville city
- ●Frost dates read at Charlottesville city's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Charlottesville city's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Charlottesville city
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Charlottesville city, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Charlottesville city averages can't show:
We read public map data around Charlottesville city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Charlottesville city average
How we know this about Charlottesville city
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 Charlottesville city carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Charlottesville city
When does frost risk typically end in Charlottesville city?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Charlottesville city 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.
How long is the growing season in Charlottesville city?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Charlottesville city 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 city?
The federal record around Charlottesville city shows 190 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (141), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Charlottesville city's scale — its 7b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Charlottesville city'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 Charlottesville city’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Charlottesville city's own scale — its own ~235-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 190 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Charlottesville city's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Charlottesville city's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Charlottesville cityUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 190 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Charlottesville city'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
- Charlottesville city sitting wholly inside the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Charlottesville city for a 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 Charlottesville city — the ~235 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 Charlottesville city's 6,557 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 190 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 Charlottesville cityread your own land →