Shenandoah 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.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Shenandoah County lies within the Shenandoah Valley and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Shenandoah County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Shenandoah 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 Shenandoah County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Shenandoah County — the short answer
Shenandoah County, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 325K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 325K 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 Shenandoah County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shenandoah County's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Shenandoah County
Across a year, Shenandoah County accumulates about 3,077 growing degree days above 50°F, about 657 fewer than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 19 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 Shenandoah County
Across Shenandoah County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Frederick, Weikert, and Berks are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.8, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
18%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Shenandoah County
The USDA soil survey maps 71% of Shenandoah County as well drained — but another 25% drains differently: 19% somewhat excessively drained, 4% moderately well drained.
Frederick is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Weikert (13%) and Berks (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 Shenandoah County
Each reading below is measured for Shenandoah 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 Shenandoah 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 Shenandoah County runs about pH 5.0–5.8, 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
MeasuredShenandoah County runs about 201 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
MeasuredShenandoah 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 Shenandoah County is in
Shenandoah County 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 Shenandoah County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Shenandoah County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 201-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 Shenandoah County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Shenandoah County
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Shenandoah County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Shenandoah County
USGS estimates 46,051 lb of Glyphosate on Shenandoah County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (19,293 lb) and Simazine (8,934 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 Shenandoah County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Shenandoah County — 294 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (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 Shenandoah 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 Shenandoah County
Closest first, across Shenandoah County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Edinburg Family ConvenienceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- C.E. THOMPSON & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SHENANDOAH COUNTY LANDFILL - EDINBURGBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- Shenandoah County Sanitary LandfillUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Bos 404Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- COOKS AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR & TIRE CENTERBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- THREE BROTHERS FURNITURE, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Johns ManvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC - XCV3Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- SKIPS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- DYSARTS GROCERY 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- RIDGE VALLEY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shenandoah 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 Shenandoah County.
Total Sites
294
across Shenandoah County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Shenandoah County
Severity Distribution
across Shenandoah County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shenandoah County, two things run higher than the national average across Shenandoah County — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (218 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Shenandoah 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 Shenandoah County average
Your land is one point inside Shenandoah County
Everything above resolves to Shenandoah County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 325K 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 Shenandoah County Average
Shenandoah County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Shenandoah County
- ●One soil character for all of Shenandoah County
- ●Frost dates read at Shenandoah County's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shenandoah County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Shenandoah County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shenandoah County, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shenandoah County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shenandoah County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shenandoah County average
How we know this about Shenandoah 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 Shenandoah County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Shenandoah County
When does frost risk typically end in Shenandoah County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shenandoah County typically lands around Apr 10, 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 May 1.
How long is the growing season in Shenandoah County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shenandoah County sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 14, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shenandoah County?
The federal record around Shenandoah County is a meaningful one — 294 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (218), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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 Shenandoah County's scale — its 7a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shenandoah 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 Shenandoah County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Shenandoah County's own scale — its own ~201-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 294 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shenandoah County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shenandoah County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Shenandoah CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 294 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Shenandoah County's boundary and the 325,171 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Shenandoah County sitting wholly inside the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Shenandoah County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Shenandoah 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 Shenandoah County — the ~201 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 Shenandoah County's 325,171 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 294 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 Shenandoah Countyread your own land →