Martinsville city, 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.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Martinsville city 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
Martinsville city holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Martinsville 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 Martinsville city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Martinsville city — the short answer
Martinsville city, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 7K 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 Martinsville city's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Martinsville city's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Martinsville city
Across a year, Martinsville city accumulates about 3,813 growing degree days above 50°F, about 79 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 73 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 2,206 hours below 45°F, 232 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 Martinsville County
Across Martinsville County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Clifford, Minnieville, and Woolwine are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.6, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
33%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Martinsville city
The USDA soil survey maps 78% of Martinsville city as well drained — but another 3% drains differently: 3% moderately well drained.
Clifford is the most extensive named soil at 29% of mapped acres, then Minnieville (14%) and Woolwine (12%).
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 Martinsville city
Each reading below is measured for Martinsville city itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Martinsville city 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 Martinsville city runs about pH 4.8–5.6, 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
MeasuredMartinsville city runs about 215 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
MeasuredMartinsville city 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 Martinsville city is in
Martinsville city sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Martinsville city
We scored all 1,086 plants against Martinsville city's own USDA zone 7b and its own 215-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 Martinsville 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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Martinsville city
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Martinsville city, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Martinsville County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Martinsville County — 196 documented sites across 4 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 Martinsville 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 Martinsville city
Closest first, across Martinsville County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BASSETT WALKER INC DISTRIBUTION PLTBrownfields · 1000 ft
- MARTINSVILLE CONCRETE PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FIRST BAPTIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SARA LEE KNIT PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- AMERICAN FURNITURE CO PLANT 1 & 4Toxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- Main Complex - Main Office & Plants 1 2 4 11Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PANNILL KNITTINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- THE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Sparkys #5Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MITCHELL TRACTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MRS C W RAMSEY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LEES TIRE & WHEELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Martinsville 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 Martinsville city.
Total Sites
196
across Martinsville County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Martinsville County
Severity Distribution
across Martinsville County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Martinsville city, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 165 sites across Martinsville County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Martinsville 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 Martinsville city average
Your land is one point inside Martinsville city
Everything above resolves to Martinsville city as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 7K 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 Martinsville city Average
Martinsville city Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Martinsville city
- ●One soil character for all of Martinsville city
- ●Frost dates read at Martinsville city's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Martinsville city's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Martinsville city
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Martinsville city, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Martinsville city averages can't show:
We read public map data around Martinsville city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Martinsville city average
How we know this about Martinsville 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 Martinsville city carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Martinsville city
When does frost risk typically end in Martinsville city?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Martinsville city typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Martinsville city?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Martinsville city sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 20, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Martinsville city?
The federal record around Martinsville city is a meaningful one — 196 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (165), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Martinsville city's scale — its 7b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Martinsville 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 Martinsville city’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Martinsville city's own scale — its own ~215-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 196 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Martinsville city's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Martinsville city's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Martinsville cityUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 196 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Martinsville city's boundary and the 7,012 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Martinsville city sitting wholly inside the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
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 Martinsville city — the ~215 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 Martinsville city's 7,012 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 196 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 Martinsville cityread your own land →