Waynesboro city, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Waynesboro 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
Waynesboro city holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Waynesboro 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 Waynesboro city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Waynesboro city — the short answer
Waynesboro city, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 10K 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 Waynesboro city's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waynesboro city's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Waynesboro city
Across a year, Waynesboro city accumulates about 3,228 growing degree days above 50°F, about 506 fewer than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 28 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 Waynesboro County
Across Waynesboro County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Frederick, Sherando, and Christian are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Waynesboro city
The USDA soil survey maps 23% of Waynesboro city as well drained — but another 5% drains differently: 2% moderately well drained, 2% poorly drained.
Frederick is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Sherando (13%) and Christian (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 Waynesboro city
Each reading below is measured for Waynesboro 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 Waynesboro city 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 Waynesboro city 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
MeasuredWaynesboro city runs about 214 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
MeasuredWaynesboro 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 Waynesboro city is in
Waynesboro city spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Ridge and Valley (84%) and Blue Ridge (16%). 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 Waynesboro city
We scored all 1,086 plants against Waynesboro city's own USDA zone 7a and its own 214-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 Waynesboro city?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Waynesboro city
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Waynesboro city, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly31 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Waynesboro County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Waynesboro County — 166 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Waynesboro 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 Waynesboro city
Closest first, across Waynesboro County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUNNYSIDE PRESBYTERIAN HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- DRAFT BUILDING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- C.W. FLINTOM TRUSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- THERON W VIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SHIRLEY GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- UNIVERSITY FIRESTONE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CURTIS A & JUANITA M GLASSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GARBER ELECTRIC SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- STUMPS SCRAPYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- KENBRIDGE CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WAYNESBORO BLDG SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WAYNE CYCLE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waynesboro 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 Waynesboro city.
Total Sites
166
across Waynesboro County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Waynesboro County
Severity Distribution
across Waynesboro County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Waynesboro city, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 108 sites across Waynesboro 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 Waynesboro 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 Waynesboro city average
Your land is one point inside Waynesboro city
Everything above resolves to Waynesboro city as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 10K 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 Waynesboro city Average
Waynesboro city Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Waynesboro city
- ●One soil character for all of Waynesboro city
- ●Frost dates read at Waynesboro city's scale: Mar 31 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waynesboro city's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Waynesboro city
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waynesboro city, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waynesboro city averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waynesboro city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waynesboro city average
How we know this about Waynesboro 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 Waynesboro city carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Waynesboro city
When does frost risk typically end in Waynesboro city?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waynesboro city typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
How long is the growing season in Waynesboro city?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waynesboro city sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 17, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waynesboro city?
The federal record around Waynesboro city shows 166 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (108), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Waynesboro city's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waynesboro 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 Waynesboro city’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Waynesboro city's own scale — its own ~214-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 166 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waynesboro city's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waynesboro city's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Waynesboro cityUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 166 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Waynesboro city's boundary and the 9,581 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Waynesboro city spans, Ridge and Valley the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Waynesboro city for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
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 Waynesboro city — the ~214 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 Waynesboro city's 9,581 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 166 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 Waynesboro cityread your own land →