Hanover County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hanover County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hanover 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 Hanover County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hanover County — the short answer
Hanover County, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 299K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 299K 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 Hanover County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hanover County's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Hanover County
Across a year, Hanover County accumulates about 3,959 growing degree days above 50°F, about 225 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 85 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 2,181 hours below 45°F, 257 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 Hanover County
Across Hanover County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Nevarc, Wedowee, and Pacolet are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.5, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
35%
Hydric soils
13%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hanover County
The USDA soil survey maps 55% of Hanover County as well drained — but another 43% drains differently: 24% moderately well drained, 12% poorly drained.
Nevarc is the most extensive named soil at 7% of mapped acres, then Wedowee (6%) and Pacolet (6%).
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 Hanover County
Each reading below is measured for Hanover 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 Hanover 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 Hanover County runs about pH 4.6–5.5, 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
MeasuredHanover County runs about 232 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
MeasuredHanover County 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 Hanover County is in
Hanover County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (52%) and Piedmont (48%). 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 Hanover County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hanover County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 232-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 Hanover County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Hanover County
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Hanover County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle27 documented records
- monarch butterfly37 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hanover County
USGS estimates 63,847 lb of Glyphosate on Hanover County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (29,538 lb) and Metolachlor-s (22,154 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 Hanover County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hanover County — 643 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Superfund sites. 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 Hanover 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 Hanover County
Closest first, across Hanover County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HANOVER COUNTY SCHOOL BOARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- BRYANTS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ASHLAND VOLUNTEER FIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SOUTHERN STATES TRI COUNTY PETROUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ASHLAND FEED STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Randolph-Macon Physical Plant and MaintenanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Dew and Beane IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HANOVER FORD TRACTOR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Ashland Ford Inc. (Former)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- B&L SWEEPERS, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Macs Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- EPPS BROTHERS LUMBER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hanover 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 Hanover County.
Sources Checked
across Hanover County
Severity Distribution
across Hanover County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hanover County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 449 sites across Hanover 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 Hanover 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 Hanover County average
Your land is one point inside Hanover County
Everything above resolves to Hanover County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 299K 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 Hanover County Average
Hanover County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hanover County
- ●One soil character for all of Hanover County
- ●Frost dates read at Hanover County's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hanover County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hanover County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hanover County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hanover County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hanover County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hanover County average
How we know this about Hanover 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 Hanover County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hanover County
When does frost risk typically end in Hanover County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hanover County typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
How long is the growing season in Hanover County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hanover County sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 29, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hanover County?
The federal record around Hanover County is a meaningful one — 643 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (449), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Hanover County's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hanover 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 Hanover County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hanover County's own scale — its own ~232-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 643 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hanover County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hanover County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hanover CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 643 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Hanover County's boundary and the 299,270 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Hanover County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hanover County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hanover 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 Hanover County — the ~232 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 Hanover County's 299,270 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 643 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 Hanover Countyread your own land →