Dickenson County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Dickenson County 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
Dickenson County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Dickenson 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 Dickenson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dickenson County — the short answer
Dickenson County, Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 211K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 211K 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 6b is Dickenson County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dickenson County's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Dickenson County
Across a year, Dickenson County accumulates about 3,070 growing degree days above 50°F, about 664 fewer than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 18 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 Dickenson County
Across Dickenson County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Shelocta, Highsplint, and Gilpin are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.9–5.7, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Dickenson County
The USDA soil survey maps 90% of Dickenson County as well drained — but another 5% drains differently: 5% somewhat excessively drained.
Shelocta is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Highsplint (16%) and Gilpin (12%).
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 Dickenson County
Each reading below is measured for Dickenson 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 Dickenson 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 Dickenson County runs about pH 4.9–5.7, 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
MeasuredDickenson County runs about 208 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
MeasuredDickenson County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Dickenson County is in
Dickenson County sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Dickenson County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Dickenson County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 208-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 Dickenson County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Dickenson County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dickenson County 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.
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Dickenson County
USGS estimates 2,813 lb of Glyphosate on Dickenson County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (2,070 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,892 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 Dickenson County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Dickenson County — 108 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 brownfield sites. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
The federal record across Dickenson 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 Dickenson County
Closest first, across Dickenson County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Triple T #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Kwikway MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- VDOT Fremont Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- WAREHOUSE NO 6Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- CSX - Seaboard System RR Caney SwitchUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Fourway Super QuikUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Dig It Fuel & Rental LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Clinchfield Coal McClure #2 Mine & RefuseUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Dickenson Co Solid Waste- Honey Camp LandfillUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- McClure River Prep PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Mountain Trail Market LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- LEON PHIPPS RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dickenson 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 Dickenson County.
Sources Checked
across Dickenson County
Severity Distribution
across Dickenson County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dickenson County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 96 sites across Dickenson 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 Dickenson 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 Dickenson County average
Your land is one point inside Dickenson County
Everything above resolves to Dickenson County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 211K 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 Dickenson County Average
Dickenson County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Dickenson County
- ●One soil character for all of Dickenson County
- ●Frost dates read at Dickenson County's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dickenson County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Dickenson County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dickenson County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dickenson County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dickenson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dickenson County average
How we know this about Dickenson 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 Dickenson County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Dickenson County
When does frost risk typically end in Dickenson County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dickenson County typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Dickenson County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dickenson County sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 15, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dickenson County?
The federal record around Dickenson County shows 108 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 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 Dickenson County's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dickenson 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 Dickenson County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Dickenson County's own scale — its own ~208-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 108 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dickenson County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dickenson County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Dickenson CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 108 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Dickenson County's boundary and the 211,483 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dickenson County sitting wholly inside the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Dickenson County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Dickenson 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 Dickenson County — the ~208 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 Dickenson County's 211,483 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 108 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 Dickenson Countyread your own land →