Henrico County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, 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
Henrico County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Henrico 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 Henrico County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Henrico County — the short answer
Henrico County, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 150K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 150K 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 Henrico County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Henrico County's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Henrico County
Across a year, Henrico County accumulates about 4,222 growing degree days above 50°F, about 488 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 102 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 1,994 hours below 45°F, 444 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 Henrico County
Across Henrico County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Kempsville, Colfax, and Caroline 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
38%
Hydric soils
15%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Henrico County
The USDA soil survey maps 34% of Henrico County as well drained — but another 53% drains differently: 24% moderately well drained, 19% somewhat poorly drained.
Kempsville is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Colfax (6%) and Caroline (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 Henrico County
Each reading below is measured for Henrico 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 Henrico 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 Henrico 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 15% of Henrico 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
MeasuredHenrico County runs about 240 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 Henrico County is in
Henrico County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (76%) and Piedmont (24%). 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 Henrico County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Henrico County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 240-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 Henrico County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (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 Henrico County
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Henrico County, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle8 documented records
- monarch butterfly23 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Henrico County
USGS estimates 9,671 lb of Glyphosate on Henrico County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (3,828 lb) and Metolachlor-s (2,953 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 Henrico County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Henrico County — 1,114 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 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 Henrico 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 Henrico County
Closest first, across Henrico County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Diamond Springs Water Company IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 52H 7Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- Dowdy's Well & Septic ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Varina MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Pattys PantryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Varina Pit StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Henrico County Water Reclamation FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- HENRICO COUNTY WATER RECLAMATION FACILITYBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- WRVA Radio/WRVA Transmitter BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Varina Annex Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Bell AtlanticUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Ryders Truck Rental IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Henrico 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 Henrico County.
Sources Checked
across Henrico County
Severity Distribution
across Henrico County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Henrico County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 716 sites across Henrico 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 Henrico 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 Henrico County average
Your land is one point inside Henrico County
Everything above resolves to Henrico County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 150K 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 Henrico County Average
Henrico County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Henrico County
- ●One soil character for all of Henrico County
- ●Frost dates read at Henrico County's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Henrico County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Henrico County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Henrico County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Henrico County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Henrico County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Henrico County average
How we know this about Henrico 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 Henrico County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Henrico County
When does frost risk typically end in Henrico County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Henrico County typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Henrico County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Henrico County sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 4, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Henrico County?
The federal record around Henrico County is a meaningful one — 1,114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (716), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Henrico County's scale — its 7b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Henrico 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 Henrico County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Henrico County's own scale — its own ~240-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,114 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Henrico County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Henrico County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Henrico CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,114 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
- Henrico County's boundary and the 149,545 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Henrico County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Henrico County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Henrico 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 Henrico County — the ~240 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 Henrico County's 149,545 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,114 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 Henrico Countyread your own land →