King George County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
King George County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across King George 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 George County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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King George County — the short answer
King George County, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 115K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 115K 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 George County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against King George County's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in King George County
Across a year, King George County accumulates about 3,890 growing degree days above 50°F, about 156 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 79 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 2,480 hours below 45°F, 42 more 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 George County
Across King George County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Sassafras, Galestown, 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 4.6–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
32%
Hydric soils
9%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across King George County
The USDA soil survey maps 44% of King George County as well drained — but another 55% drains differently: 20% somewhat excessively drained, 17% moderately well drained.
Sassafras is the most extensive named soil at 30% of mapped acres, then Galestown (12%) and Caroline (7%).
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 George County
Each reading below is measured for King George 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 George County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 George County runs about pH 4.6–5.3, 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 George County runs about 235 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 George 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 George County is in
King George County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (87%) and Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain (13%). 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 King George County
We scored all 1,086 plants against King George County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 235-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 George 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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 King George County
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from King George County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in King George County
USGS estimates 8,607 lb of Glyphosate on King George County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (4,664 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,850 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 George County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across King George County — 108 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site. 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 George 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 George County
Closest first, across King George County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KING GEORGE CO. COURTHOUSEPFAS · 25 ft
- ALBERT CHILDS ALS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Courthouse MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 1-Ten MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- King George MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Andys Market - 301 CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Edgehill Exxon StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- RUSSELL TREMBLAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ALS BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MORRIS CHEVROLET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- RT 3 SPURUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- KING GEORGE LUMBER COMPANY, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from King George 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 George County.
Sources Checked
across King George County
Severity Distribution
across King George County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around King George County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 77 sites across King George County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 George 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 George County average
Your land is one point inside King George County
Everything above resolves to King George County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 115K 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 George County Average
King George County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across King George County
- ●One soil character for all of King George County
- ●Frost dates read at King George County's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not King George County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in King George County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in King George County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that King George County averages can't show:
We read public map data around King George County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the King George County average
How we know this about King George 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 George County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about King George County
When does frost risk typically end in King George County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in King George County typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
How long is the growing season in King George County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, King George County sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 31, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in King George County?
The federal record around King George County is a meaningful one — 108 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest PFAS 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 King George County's scale — its 7b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of King George 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 George County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at King George County's own scale — its own ~235-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 108 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- King George County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- King George County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~235-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 George CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 108 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- King George County's boundary and the 114,962 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions King George County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto King George 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 George County — the ~235 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 George County's 114,962 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 108 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 George Countyread your own land →