Franklin city, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Franklin city lies within Tidewater & Chesapeake — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Franklin city holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Franklin 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 Franklin city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Franklin city — the short answer
Franklin city, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 5K 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 8a is Franklin city's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Franklin city's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Franklin city
Across a year, Franklin city accumulates about 4,425 growing degree days above 50°F, about 691 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 123 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 1,786 hours below 45°F, 652 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 Franklin County
Across Franklin County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Roanoke, Slagle, and Emporia are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.5–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
45%
Hydric soils
40%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Franklin city
The USDA soil survey maps 35% of Franklin city as poorly drained — but another 57% drains differently: 34% moderately well drained, 22% well drained.
Roanoke is the most extensive named soil at 32% of mapped acres, then Slagle (22%) and Emporia (13%).
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 Franklin city
Each reading below is measured for Franklin 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 Franklin city are poorly drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Franklin city runs about pH 4.5–5.3, 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
Season length
MeasuredFranklin city 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFranklin city sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Franklin city is in
Franklin city sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Franklin city
We scored all 1,086 plants against Franklin city's own USDA zone 8a 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 Franklin city?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Franklin city
Survey cells within 31 miles of Franklin city checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Franklin County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Franklin County — 82 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Franklin 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 Franklin city
Closest first, across Franklin County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNION 76 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- COLLEGE DRIVE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BON SECOURS SOUTHAMPTON MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SOUTHAMPTON MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PAUL D CAMP COMMUNITY COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BEAR CONTRACTING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Plaza SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PAUL D CAMP COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- WALGREENS #11986Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- PENTAPCO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PLAZA CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Franklin 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 Franklin city.
Total Sites
82
across Franklin County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Franklin County
Severity Distribution
across Franklin County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Franklin city, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 68 sites across Franklin County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Franklin 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 Franklin city average
Your land is one point inside Franklin city
Everything above resolves to Franklin city as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 5K 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 Franklin city Average
Franklin city Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Franklin city
- ●One soil character for all of Franklin city
- ●Frost dates read at Franklin city's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Franklin city's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Franklin city
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Franklin city, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Franklin city averages can't show:
We read public map data around Franklin city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Franklin city average
How we know this about Franklin 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 Franklin city carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Franklin city
When does frost risk typically end in Franklin city?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Franklin city typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
How long is the growing season in Franklin city?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Franklin city sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 2, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Franklin city?
The federal record around Franklin city is a meaningful one — 82 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Franklin city's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Franklin 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 Franklin city’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Franklin city's own scale — its own ~241-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 82 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Franklin city's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Franklin city'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 Franklin cityUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 82 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Franklin city's boundary and the 5,297 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Franklin city sitting wholly inside the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS 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 Franklin city — 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 Franklin city's 5,297 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 82 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 Franklin cityread your own land →