King and Queen 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.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
King and Queen County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across King and Queen 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 King and Queen County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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King and Queen County — the short answer
King and Queen County, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 202K 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
- 202K 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 King and Queen County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against King and Queen County's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in King and Queen County
Across a year, King and Queen County accumulates about 4,240 growing degree days above 50°F, about 506 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 106 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 1,968 hours below 45°F, 470 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 King and Queen County
Across King and Queen County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Emporia, Slagle, and Rumford are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.8, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
42%
Hydric soils
9%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across King and Queen County
The USDA soil survey maps 69% of King and Queen County as well drained — but another 27% drains differently: 16% moderately well drained, 5% poorly drained.
Emporia is the most extensive named soil at 41% of mapped acres, then Slagle (23%) and Rumford (9%).
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 King and Queen County
Each reading below is measured for King and Queen 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 King and Queen 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 King and Queen County runs about pH 5.3–5.8, 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
MeasuredKing and Queen 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredKing and Queen 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 King and Queen County is in
King and Queen County sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in King and Queen County
We scored all 1,086 plants against King and Queen 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 King and Queen County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around King and Queen County
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from King and Queen County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in King and Queen County
USGS estimates 34,212 lb of Glyphosate on King and Queen County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (11,711 lb) and Acetochlor (7,971 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 King and Queen County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across King and Queen County — 73 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 King and Queen 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 King and Queen County
Closest first, across King and Queen County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- King and Queen Fish HatcheryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Walton BrothersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- King and Queen County Board of SupervisorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- King and Queen Bus Garage Central High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Central King and Queen Volunteer Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- D and P MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 55K 1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- Former Olivers StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Cumnor StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Harcum VorUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- King and Queen County School BoardUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Baldwins MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from King and Queen 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 King and Queen County.
Total Sites
73
across King and Queen County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across King and Queen County
Severity Distribution
across King and Queen County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around King and Queen County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 54 sites across King and Queen 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 King and Queen 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 King and Queen County average
Your land is one point inside King and Queen County
Everything above resolves to King and Queen County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 202K 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 King and Queen County Average
King and Queen County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across King and Queen County
- ●One soil character for all of King and Queen County
- ●Frost dates read at King and Queen County's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not King and Queen County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in King and Queen County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in King and Queen County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that King and Queen County averages can't show:
We read public map data around King and Queen County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the King and Queen County average
How we know this about King and Queen 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 King and Queen County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about King and Queen County
When does frost risk typically end in King and Queen County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in King and Queen 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 King and Queen County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, King and Queen 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 King and Queen County?
The federal record around King and Queen County is a meaningful one — 73 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 King and Queen County's scale — its 7b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of King and Queen 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 King and Queen County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at King and Queen County's own scale — its own ~240-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 73 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- King and Queen County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- King and Queen 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 King and Queen CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 73 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- King and Queen County's boundary and the 201,693 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- King and Queen County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in King and Queen County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto King and Queen 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 King and Queen 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 King and Queen County's 201,693 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 73 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 King and Queen Countyread your own land →