Rappahannock County, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Rappahannock County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rappahannock County — the short answer
Rappahannock County, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 170K 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 170K 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 Rappahannock County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rappahannock County's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Rappahannock County
Across a year, Rappahannock County accumulates about 3,468 growing degree days above 50°F, about 266 fewer than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 42 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 Rappahannock County
Across Rappahannock County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Brandywine, Eubanks, and Louisburg are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
8%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Rappahannock County
The USDA soil survey maps 38% of Rappahannock County as well drained — but another 38% drains differently: 29% somewhat excessively drained, 4% excessively drained.
Brandywine is the most extensive named soil at 41% of mapped acres, then Eubanks (7%) and Louisburg (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 Rappahannock County
Each reading below is measured for Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock 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
MeasuredRappahannock County runs about 221 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
MeasuredRappahannock 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 Rappahannock County is in
Rappahannock County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northern Piedmont (68%) and Blue Ridge (32%). 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 Rappahannock County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Rappahannock County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 221-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 Rappahannock 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 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 6 — 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 Rappahannock County
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Rappahannock County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle7 documented records
- monarch butterfly27 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Rappahannock County
USGS estimates 3,172 lb of Glyphosate on Rappahannock County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Carbaryl (1,605 lb) and Atrazine (1,043 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 Rappahannock County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Rappahannock County — 47 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 mining sites. Historic and active mines that may leach heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
The federal record across Rappahannock County is light. Growing food here starts from a strong position — a quick pass over the map tells you whether any recorded site sits near your land, and if one does, that's information to plant with, not a reason to stop.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Rappahannock County
Closest first, across Rappahannock County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rappahannock County School Bus MaintenanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 211 QUICKE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- VDOT Rappahannock Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BALDWIN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HAMPTON INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- KEYSER CONST COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- CHARLES TOMPKINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Piney River Ranger StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- B&B SERVICE CENTER/MIKE BROWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- HAYWOOD TIMBERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- VDOT Washington Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Panorama Wastewater PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock County.
Severity Distribution
across Rappahannock County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rappahannock County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 44 sites across Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock County average
Your land is one point inside Rappahannock County
Everything above resolves to Rappahannock County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 170K 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 Rappahannock County Average
Rappahannock County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Rappahannock County
- ●One soil character for all of Rappahannock County
- ●Frost dates read at Rappahannock County's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rappahannock County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Rappahannock County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rappahannock County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rappahannock County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rappahannock County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rappahannock County average
How we know this about Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Rappahannock County
When does frost risk typically end in Rappahannock County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rappahannock County sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 23, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rappahannock County?
The federal record around Rappahannock County is light — 47 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
Everything above is measured at Rappahannock County's scale — its 7a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Rappahannock County's own scale — its own ~221-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 47 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rappahannock County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rappahannock County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Rappahannock CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 47 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Rappahannock County's boundary and the 170,478 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Rappahannock County spans, Northern Piedmont the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Rappahannock County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock County — the ~221 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 Rappahannock County's 170,478 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 47 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 Rappahannock Countyread your own land →