Giles County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Giles 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
Giles County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Giles 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 Giles County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Giles County — the short answer
Giles County, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 229K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 229K 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 Giles County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Giles County's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Giles County
Across a year, Giles County accumulates about 3,026 growing degree days above 50°F, about 708 fewer than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 14 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 Giles County
Across Giles County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Frederick, Carbo, and Gilpin are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a gravelly sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.6, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Giles County
The USDA soil survey maps 97% of Giles County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 1% poorly drained, 1% moderately well drained.
Frederick is the most extensive named soil at 29% of mapped acres, then Carbo (5%) and Gilpin (5%).
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 Giles County
Each reading below is measured for Giles 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 Giles 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 Giles County runs about pH 5.0–5.6, 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
MeasuredGiles County runs about 203 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
MeasuredGiles County 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 Giles County is in
Giles County 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 Giles County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Giles County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 203-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 Giles County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Giles County
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Giles County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly19 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Giles County
USGS estimates 2,528 lb of Glyphosate on Giles County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (1,583 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,460 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 Giles County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Giles County — 131 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Giles 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 Giles County
Closest first, across Giles County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GIles High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Pearisburg Fast FuelsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #2646Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- EAST END FARM CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CARILION GILES COMMUNITY HOSPITALBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Carilion Giles Community HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Former 7 Day MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Star MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Edgewood ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- GILES MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- VC SERVICESBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- RENE COMPOSITE MATERIALS CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Giles 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 Giles County.
Total Sites
131
across Giles County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Giles County
Severity Distribution
across Giles County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Giles County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 95 sites across Giles 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 Giles 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 Giles County average
Your land is one point inside Giles County
Everything above resolves to Giles County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 229K 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 Giles County Average
Giles County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Giles County
- ●One soil character for all of Giles County
- ●Frost dates read at Giles County's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Giles County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Giles County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Giles County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Giles County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Giles County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Giles County average
How we know this about Giles 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 Giles County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Giles County
When does frost risk typically end in Giles County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Giles County typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
How long is the growing season in Giles County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Giles County sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 12, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Giles County?
The federal record around Giles County shows 131 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Giles County's scale — its 7a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Giles 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 Giles County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Giles County's own scale — its own ~203-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 131 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Giles County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Giles County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Giles CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 131 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Giles County's boundary and the 228,623 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Giles County sitting wholly inside the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Giles County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Giles 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 Giles County — the ~203 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 Giles County's 228,623 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 131 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 Giles Countyread your own land →