Madison County, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Madison County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Madison 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 Madison County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Madison County — the short answer
Madison County, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 205K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 205K 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 Madison County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Madison County's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Madison County
Across a year, Madison County accumulates about 3,502 growing degree days above 50°F, about 232 fewer than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 44 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 Madison County
Across Madison County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Brandywine, Meadowville, and Eubanks are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
16%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Madison County
The USDA soil survey maps 61% of Madison County as well drained — but another 21% drains differently: 9% somewhat excessively drained, 5% excessively drained.
Brandywine is the most extensive named soil at 11% of mapped acres, then Meadowville (7%) and Eubanks (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 Madison County
Each reading below is measured for Madison 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 Madison 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 Madison County runs about pH 5.0–5.5, 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
Season length
MeasuredMadison County runs about 226 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
MeasuredMadison County 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 Madison County is in
Madison County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northern Piedmont (69%) and Blue Ridge (31%). 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 Madison County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Madison County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 226-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 Madison County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Madison County
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Madison County, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle7 documented records
- monarch butterfly29 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Madison County
USGS estimates 33,273 lb of Glyphosate on Madison County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (9,190 lb) and Simazine (4,442 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 Madison County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Madison County — 91 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Madison 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 Madison County
Closest first, across Madison County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLORE, E A SONS INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- E.A. CLORE SONS, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CRIGLERSVILLE ELEM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- RAPIDAN SERVICE AUTHORITY SEWER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- RAPIDAN SERVICE AUTHORITY WATER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- HENSHAWS AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- GROVER SISKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- MADISON ELEM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Orange-Madison Coop Madison Farm ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- MADISON CO RESCUE SQUAD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Jones Auto Parts IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- JONES AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Madison 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 Madison County.
Total Sites
91
across Madison County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Madison County
Severity Distribution
across Madison County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Madison County, two things run higher than the national average across Madison County — Underground Storage Tanks (72 sites) and Mining (5 sites). 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.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Madison 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 Madison County average
Your land is one point inside Madison County
Everything above resolves to Madison County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 205K 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 Madison County Average
Madison County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Madison County
- ●One soil character for all of Madison County
- ●Frost dates read at Madison County's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Madison County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Madison County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Madison County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Madison County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Madison County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Madison County average
How we know this about Madison 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 Madison County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Madison County
When does frost risk typically end in Madison County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Madison County typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
How long is the growing season in Madison County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Madison County sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 28, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Madison County?
The federal record around Madison County shows 91 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (72), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.8 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 Madison County's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Madison 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 Madison County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Madison County's own scale — its own ~226-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 91 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Madison County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Madison County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Madison CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 91 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Madison County's boundary and the 205,208 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Madison County spans, Northern Piedmont the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Madison County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Madison 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 Madison County — the ~226 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 Madison County's 205,208 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 91 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 Madison Countyread your own land →