Dillwyn, 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.
Even in Dillwyn, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Dillwyn lot. 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 Dillwyn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dillwyn — the short answer
Dillwyn, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 412 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 412 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Dillwyn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dillwyn's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dillwyn
Each reading below is measured for Dillwyn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDillwyn runs about 223 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
MeasuredDillwyn 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 Dillwyn is in
Dillwyn sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dillwyn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Buckingham County.
What Grows in Dillwyn
Every plant below cleared Dillwyn's own zone 7b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dillwyn?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Dillwyn
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Dillwyn, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dillwyn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dillwyn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEWTON J E & BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- TOWN MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- BUCKINGHAM COUNTY RESCUE SQUADUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- COXS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- John D. AllenUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WESTVACO CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- PEARSON H CUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- GRAY ELISE SUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CLARKE MARY F STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- LITTLE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- DILLWYN LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Seay and Haver Oil Company IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dillwyn'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 Dillwyn.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dillwyn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dillwyn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dillwyn, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dillwyn — Mining (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (64 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Dillwyn
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 Dillwyn average
Your land is one point inside Dillwyn
Everything above resolves to Dillwyn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 412 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Dillwyn Average
Dillwyn Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Dillwyn
- ●One soil character for all of Dillwyn
- ●Frost dates read at Dillwyn's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dillwyn's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dillwyn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dillwyn, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dillwyn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dillwyn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dillwyn average
How we know this about Dillwyn
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Dillwyn’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Dillwyn
When does frost risk typically end in Dillwyn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dillwyn typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Dillwyn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dillwyn typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dillwyn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dillwyn sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 23, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dillwyn?
The federal record around Dillwyn is a meaningful one — 84 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (64), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dillwyn?
From about Oct 7 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dillwyn's scale — its 7b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dillwyn's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Dillwyn’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dillwyn's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 412 acres it covers and 84 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dillwyn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dillwyn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 6 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 84 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dillwyn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dillwyn's boundary and the 412 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dillwyn's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dillwynlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dillwyn's 412 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Buckingham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Buckingham County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Buckingham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dillwyn's 412 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dillwyn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 412 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Dillwyn-wide figureread your own land →
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