Drakes Branch, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Drakes Branch, 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 Drakes Branch 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 Drakes Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Drakes Branch — the short answer
Drakes Branch, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Drakes Branch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Drakes Branch's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Drakes Branch
Each reading below is measured for Drakes Branch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDrakes Branch runs about 228 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
MeasuredDrakes Branch 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 Drakes Branch is in
Drakes Branch sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Drakes Branch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Charlotte County.
What Grows in Drakes Branch
Every plant below cleared Drakes Branch's own zone 7b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Drakes Branch?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Drakes Branch
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Drakes Branch, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Drakes Branch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Drakes Branch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fas-Fuel #2Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- PETTUS MOTOR COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CANADAS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Ponton Wood ProductsUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Former JOY FOOD STORES #906Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Freddie Church ArcoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Westpoint Stevens Inc Drakes Branch PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WESTPOINT STEVENS INC DRAKES BRANCHBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WESTPOINT STEVENS INC DRAKES BRANCHToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- Stanley Land and LumberUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LEWIS & MARYS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CWT, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Drakes Branch'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 Drakes Branch.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Drakes Branch
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Drakes Branch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Drakes Branch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Drakes Branch, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Drakes Branch — Mining (12 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (91 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Drakes Branch
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 Drakes Branch average
Your land is one point inside Drakes Branch
Everything above resolves to Drakes Branch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Drakes Branch Average
Drakes Branch Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Drakes Branch
- ●One soil character for all of Drakes Branch
- ●Frost dates read at Drakes Branch's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Drakes Branch's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Drakes Branch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Drakes Branch, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Drakes Branch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Drakes Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Drakes Branch average
How we know this about Drakes Branch
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 Drakes Branch’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 Drakes Branch
When does frost risk typically end in Drakes Branch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Drakes Branch typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Drakes Branch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Drakes Branch typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Drakes Branch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Drakes Branch sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 25, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Drakes Branch?
The federal record around Drakes Branch shows 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Drakes Branch?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Drakes Branch's scale — its 7b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Drakes Branch'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 Drakes Branch’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Drakes Branch's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,648 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Drakes Branch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Drakes Branch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 8 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Drakes Branch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Drakes Branch's boundary and the 2,648 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Drakes Branch's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Drakes Branchlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Drakes Branch's 2,648 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Charlotte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Charlotte 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 Charlotte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Drakes Branch's 2,648 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Drakes Branch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,648 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 Drakes Branch-wide figureread your own land →
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