Covington city, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Covington city lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Covington city holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Covington 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 Covington city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Covington city — the short answer
Covington city, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 4K 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 7a is Covington city's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Covington city's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Covington city
Across a year, Covington city accumulates about 3,290 growing degree days above 50°F, about 444 fewer than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 30 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.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Covington County
Across Covington County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Nicelytown, Zoar, and Murrill are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.2, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
20%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Covington city
The USDA soil survey maps 50% of Covington city as well drained — but another 28% drains differently: 25% moderately well drained, 3% excessively drained.
Nicelytown is the most extensive named soil at 9% of mapped acres, then Zoar (8%) and Murrill (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 Covington city
Each reading below is measured for Covington 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 Covington 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 Covington city runs about pH 4.8–5.2, 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
MeasuredCovington city runs about 211 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
MeasuredCovington city 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 Covington city is in
Covington city sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Covington city
We scored all 1,086 plants against Covington city's own USDA zone 7a and its own 211-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 Covington city?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Covington city
Survey cells within 31 miles of Covington city checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 31 miles off. What to watch for.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Covington County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Covington County — 71 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 Covington 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 Covington city
Closest first, across Covington County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VACANT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- HIGHS DAIRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Previous Service Station SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- 220 ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- COVINGTON TIRE PROSBrownfields · 900 ft
- EXXON CO USA #26718Brownfields · 1000 ft
- Valero MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- R E BRUNGARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WOODYS OF COVINGTON AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- JENNINGS AND WEBBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FAIRFAWN CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BUS GARAGE - SONNY MEADE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Covington 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 Covington city.
Total Sites
71
across Covington County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Covington County
Severity Distribution
across Covington County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Covington city, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 52 sites across Covington County. 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 Covington 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 Covington city average
Your land is one point inside Covington city
Everything above resolves to Covington city as a whole — one PHZM band and one county 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 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 Covington city Average
Covington city Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Covington city
- ●One soil character for all of Covington city
- ●Frost dates read at Covington city's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Covington city's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Covington city
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Covington city, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Covington city averages can't show:
We read public map data around Covington city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Covington city average
How we know this about Covington 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 Covington city carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Covington city
When does frost risk typically end in Covington city?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Covington city typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
How long is the growing season in Covington city?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Covington city sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 17, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Covington city?
The federal record around Covington city shows 71 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (52), 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 Covington city's scale — its 7a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Covington 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 Covington city’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Covington city's own scale — its own ~211-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 71 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Covington city's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Covington city's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Covington cityUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 71 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
- Covington city's boundary and the 3,500 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Covington city sitting wholly inside the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
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 Covington city — the ~211 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 Covington city's 3,500 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 71 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 Covington cityread your own land →