Fredericksburg city, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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
Fredericksburg city holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Fredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fredericksburg city — the short answer
Fredericksburg city, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- 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 Fredericksburg city's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fredericksburg city's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Fredericksburg city
Across a year, Fredericksburg city accumulates about 3,829 growing degree days above 50°F, about 95 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 74 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 2,455 hours below 45°F, 17 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 Fredericksburg County
Across Fredericksburg County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Wickham, Faceville, and Varina are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
12%
Hydric soils
6%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Fredericksburg city
The USDA soil survey maps 18% of Fredericksburg city as well drained — but another 25% drains differently: 18% somewhat excessively drained, 6% poorly drained.
Wickham is the most extensive named soil at 5% of mapped acres, then Faceville (3%) and Varina (3%).
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 Fredericksburg city
Each reading below is measured for Fredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg city are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Fredericksburg city runs about pH 4.6–5.3, 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
MeasuredFredericksburg city runs about 227 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
MeasuredFredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg city is in
Fredericksburg city 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 Fredericksburg city
We scored all 1,086 plants against Fredericksburg city's own USDA zone 7b and its own 227-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 Fredericksburg city?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Fredericksburg city
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Fredericksburg city, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly123 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Fredericksburg County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Fredericksburg County — 212 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.
There's a meaningful federal record across Fredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg city
Closest first, across Fredericksburg County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHESAPEAKE WOOD TREATING COToxics Release Inventory · 50 ft
- UNIVERSAL FOREST PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 50 ft
- AMOCO OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #10454Brownfields · 1300 ft
- FREEMAN ASSOCIATES, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- VIRGINIA SEMICONDUCTOR INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- FORMER AT&T FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PURVIS FORD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- OSCAR TATE BUICK PONTIAC, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PENN-MAR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Fas Mart #6Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- STAFFORD DODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg city.
Total Sites
212
across Fredericksburg County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Fredericksburg County
Severity Distribution
across Fredericksburg County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fredericksburg city, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 158 sites across Fredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg city average
Your land is one point inside Fredericksburg city
Everything above resolves to Fredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg city Average
Fredericksburg city Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Fredericksburg city
- ●One soil character for all of Fredericksburg city
- ●Frost dates read at Fredericksburg city's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fredericksburg city's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Fredericksburg city
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fredericksburg city, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fredericksburg city averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fredericksburg city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fredericksburg city average
How we know this about Fredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg city carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Fredericksburg city
When does frost risk typically end in Fredericksburg city?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fredericksburg city typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
How long is the growing season in Fredericksburg city?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fredericksburg city sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 25, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fredericksburg city?
The federal record around Fredericksburg city is a meaningful one — 212 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (158), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Fredericksburg city's scale — its 7b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg city’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Fredericksburg city's own scale — its own ~227-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 212 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fredericksburg city's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fredericksburg city's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Fredericksburg cityUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 212 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Fredericksburg city's boundary and the 6,688 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fredericksburg city sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Fredericksburg city for 2 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 Fredericksburg city — the ~227 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 Fredericksburg city's 6,688 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 212 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 Fredericksburg cityread your own land →