Lexington city, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Lexington city lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lexington city holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lexington city, 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 Lexington city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lexington city — the short answer
Lexington city, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 2K 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 7a is Lexington city's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lexington city's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Lexington city
Across a year, Lexington city accumulates about 3,457 growing degree days above 50°F, about 277 fewer than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 40 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.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Lexington County
Detailed USDA soil-survey (SSURGO) mapping is limited across Lexington County, so there isn't a reliable county-wide soil summary to show here yet — a gap in the national survey, not in the ground itself.
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lexington city
Each reading below is measured for Lexington city itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLexington city runs about 210 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
MeasuredLexington city sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Lexington city is in
Lexington city sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Lexington city
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lexington city's own USDA zone 7a and its own 210-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 Lexington city?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Lexington city
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Lexington city, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Lexington County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lexington County — 58 documented sites across 2 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 11 brownfield sites. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
The federal record across Lexington County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Lexington city
Closest first, across Lexington County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- H&J TIRE COMPANY, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- A Corner of LexingtonUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- EXXON S/S #2-4230Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FORMER WOODY CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CARILION ROCKBRIDGE COMMUNITY HOSPITALBrownfields · 1200 ft
- STONEWALL JACKSON HOSPITALBrownfields · 1200 ft
- National Wholesale CompnayUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SPRINT/LEXINGTON CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WASHINGTON & LEE UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- WASHIINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- CITY OF LEXINGTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- AMOCO OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lexington city'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 Lexington city.
Severity Distribution
across Lexington County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lexington city, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 47 sites across Lexington 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 Lexington city
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 Lexington city average
Your land is one point inside Lexington city
Everything above resolves to Lexington city as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 2K 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 Lexington city Average
Lexington city Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Lexington city
- ●One soil character for all of Lexington city
- ●Frost dates read at Lexington city's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lexington city's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lexington city
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lexington city, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lexington city averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lexington city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lexington city average
How we know this about Lexington city
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 Lexington city carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lexington city
When does frost risk typically end in Lexington city?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lexington city typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Lexington city?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lexington city sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 17, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lexington city?
The federal record around Lexington city shows 58 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Lexington city's scale — its 7a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lexington city'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 Lexington city’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lexington city's own scale — its own ~210-day span between 28°F freezes and 58 documented sites inside its boundary; 2 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lexington city's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lexington city's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lexington city's boundary and the 1,600 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lexington city sitting wholly inside the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Lexington city — the ~210 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 Lexington city's 1,600 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 58 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 Lexington cityread your own land →