Flint Hill, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Flint Hill, 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 Flint Hill 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 Flint Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Flint Hill — the short answer
Flint Hill, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- 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
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Flint Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Flint Hill's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Flint Hill
Each reading below is measured for Flint Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFlint Hill runs about 218 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
MeasuredFlint Hill 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 Flint Hill is in
Flint Hill sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Flint Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rappahannock County.
What Grows in Flint Hill
Every plant below cleared Flint Hill's own zone 7a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Flint Hill?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Nov 4 — 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 Flint Hill
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Flint Hill, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Flint Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Flint Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WAKEFIELD MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- AT&T FLINT HILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- AILEEN, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SETTLES GROCERY & GARAGEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Settles GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Hillsdale Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Harper ProspectMining · 3.5 mi
- NISH NORTH & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- BEN VENUE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- WAKEFIELD SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- HAYWOOD TIMBERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- B&B SERVICE CENTER/MIKE BROWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Flint Hill'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 Flint Hill.
Total Sites
67
within ~10 miles of Flint Hill
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Flint Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Flint Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Flint Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Flint Hill — Mining (15 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (49 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 Flint Hill
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 Flint Hill average
Your land is one point inside Flint Hill
Everything above resolves to Flint Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Flint Hill Average
Flint Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Flint Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Flint Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Flint Hill's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Flint Hill's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Flint Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Flint Hill, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Flint Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Flint Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Flint Hill average
How we know this about Flint Hill
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 Flint Hill’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 Flint Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Flint Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Flint Hill 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.
When is the first frost in Flint Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Flint Hill 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 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Flint Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Flint Hill sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 21, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Flint Hill?
The federal record around Flint Hill shows 67 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Flint Hill?
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 Flint Hill's scale — its 7a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Flint Hill'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 Flint Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Flint Hill's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,113 acres it covers and 67 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Flint Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Flint Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 4 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 67 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Flint Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Flint Hill's boundary and the 1,113 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Flint Hill's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Flint Hilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Flint Hill's 1,113 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rappahannock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Flint Hill's 1,113 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Flint Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,113 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Flint Hill-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaFlint Hill sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides