Duffield, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Duffield, 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 Duffield 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 Duffield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Duffield — the short answer
Duffield, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 393 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 393 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 7a is Duffield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Duffield's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Duffield
Each reading below is measured for Duffield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDuffield runs about 217 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
MeasuredDuffield 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 Duffield is in
Duffield sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Duffield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scott County.
What Grows in Duffield
Every plant below cleared Duffield's own zone 7a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Duffield?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Duffield
Survey cells within 31 miles of Duffield checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Duffield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Duffield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MASCOTECH INDUSTRIAL COMPONENTSToxics Release Inventory · 700 ft
- VIRGINIA FOREST PRODUCTS LLCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- THE PATY COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- VFP Incorporated - Concrete Shelter DivisionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JOY TECHNOLOGIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ROGERS FOAM CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1900 ft
- TEMPUR PRODUCTION USA INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- TEMPUR PRODUCTION USA INCToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- JOY GLOBAL UNDERGROUND MINING LLC - DUFFIELDToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- JOY GLOBAL UNDERGROUND MINING LLC - DUFFIELDBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Beverly Enterprises IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Get It MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Duffield'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 Duffield.
Total Sites
92
within ~10 miles of Duffield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Duffield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Duffield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Duffield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Duffield — Underground Storage Tanks (67 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Duffield
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 Duffield average
Your land is one point inside Duffield
Everything above resolves to Duffield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 393 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 Duffield Average
Duffield Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Duffield
- ●One soil character for all of Duffield
- ●Frost dates read at Duffield's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Duffield's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Duffield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Duffield, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Duffield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Duffield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Duffield average
How we know this about Duffield
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 Duffield’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 Duffield
When does frost risk typically end in Duffield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Duffield typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Duffield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Duffield typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Duffield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Duffield sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 21, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Duffield?
The federal record around Duffield shows 92 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles 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 Duffield?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Duffield's scale — its 7a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Duffield'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 Duffield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Duffield's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 393 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Duffield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Duffield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 4 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Duffield, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Duffield's boundary and the 393 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Duffield's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Duffield checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Duffield's 393 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scott 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 Scott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Duffield's 393 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Duffield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 393 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles 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 Duffield-wide figureread your own land →
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