Henry County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Henry County lies within the Piedmont — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Henry County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Henry 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 Henry County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Henry County — the short answer
Henry County, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 245K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 245K 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 Henry County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Henry County's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Henry County
Across a year, Henry County accumulates about 3,842 growing degree days above 50°F, about 108 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 76 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 2,178 hours below 45°F, 260 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 Henry County
Across Henry County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Clifford, Woolwine, and Minnieville are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
3%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Henry County
The USDA soil survey maps 96% of Henry County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% moderately well drained.
Clifford is the most extensive named soil at 64% of mapped acres, then Woolwine (18%) and Minnieville (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 Henry County
Each reading below is measured for Henry 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 Henry 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 Henry County runs about pH 4.8, 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
MeasuredHenry County runs about 214 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
MeasuredHenry 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 Henry County is in
Henry County sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Henry County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Henry County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 214-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 Henry 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 Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Henry County
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Henry County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Henry County
USGS estimates 3,596 lb of Glyphosate on Henry County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (2,074 lb) and Atrazine (1,987 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 Henry County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Henry County — 442 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). 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 Henry 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 Henry County
Closest first, across Henry County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Old Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PATRICK HENRY CORRECTIONAL UNIT NO. 28Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- VDOT - Horse Pasture Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Blue Ridge Stone Corp Horsepasture PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- C and B MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Spencer Penn CentreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Triangle Electric CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Blue Ridge Regional AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- OLD WELL SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Best MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Charles W. Brinegar EnterprisesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Getty Mart 12Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Henry 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 Henry County.
Total Sites
442
across Henry County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Henry County
Severity Distribution
across Henry County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Henry County, two things run higher than the national average across Henry County — Toxics Release Inventory (41 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (311 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Henry 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 Henry County average
Your land is one point inside Henry County
Everything above resolves to Henry County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 245K 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 Henry County Average
Henry County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Henry County
- ●One soil character for all of Henry County
- ●Frost dates read at Henry County's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Henry County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Henry County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Henry County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Henry County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Henry County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Henry County average
How we know this about Henry 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 Henry County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Henry County
When does frost risk typically end in Henry County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Henry County typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Henry County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Henry County sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 18, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Henry County?
The federal record around Henry County is a meaningful one — 442 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (311), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Henry County's scale — its 7b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Henry 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 Henry County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Henry County's own scale — its own ~214-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 442 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Henry County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Henry County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Henry CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 442 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Henry County's boundary and the 244,704 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Henry County sitting wholly inside the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Henry 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 Henry County — the ~214 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 Henry County's 244,704 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 442 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 Henry Countyread your own land →