Greensville County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Greensville County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Greensville 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 Greensville County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Greensville County — the short answer
Greensville County, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 189K 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 189K 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 Greensville County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Greensville County's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Greensville County
Across a year, Greensville County accumulates about 4,233 growing degree days above 50°F, about 499 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 103 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 1,867 hours below 45°F, 571 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 Greensville County
Across Greensville County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Roanoke, Woodington, and Mattaponi are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.1, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
43%
Hydric soils
33%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Greensville County
The USDA soil survey maps 36% of Greensville County as moderately well drained — but another 63% drains differently: 33% poorly drained, 29% well drained.
Roanoke is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Woodington (12%) and Mattaponi (10%).
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 Greensville County
Each reading below is measured for Greensville 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 Greensville County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Greensville County runs about pH 4.6–5.1, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 33% of Greensville County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredGreensville County runs about 243 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
The kind of country Greensville County is in
Greensville County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (66%) and Piedmont (34%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Greensville County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Greensville County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 243-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 Greensville County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 18 — 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 Greensville County
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Greensville County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Greensville County
USGS estimates 31,172 lb of Glyphosate on Greensville County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (13,485 lb) and Acephate (11,136 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 Greensville County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Greensville County — 77 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Greensville 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 Greensville County
Closest first, across Greensville County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Virginia Dyeing and Finishing CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Emporia City ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- American Box CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Emporia Concrete ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- S C CaudleUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Suburban Food MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Husky Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Pea Hill MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Vaughns StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Kings GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Greenleaf InnUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- M and M GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Greensville 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 Greensville County.
Total Sites
77
across Greensville County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Greensville County
Severity Distribution
across Greensville County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Greensville County, two things run higher than the national average across Greensville County — Underground Storage Tanks (61 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Greensville 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 Greensville County average
Your land is one point inside Greensville County
Everything above resolves to Greensville County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 189K 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 Greensville County Average
Greensville County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Greensville County
- ●One soil character for all of Greensville County
- ●Frost dates read at Greensville County's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Greensville County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Greensville County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Greensville County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Greensville County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Greensville County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Greensville County average
How we know this about Greensville 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 Greensville County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Greensville County
When does frost risk typically end in Greensville County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Greensville County 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 Greensville County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Greensville County sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 4, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Greensville County?
The federal record around Greensville County shows 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Greensville County's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Greensville 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 Greensville County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Greensville County's own scale — its own ~243-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 77 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Greensville County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Greensville County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Greensville CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 77 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Greensville County's boundary and the 189,041 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Greensville County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Greensville 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 Greensville County — the ~243 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 Greensville County's 189,041 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 77 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 Greensville Countyread your own land →