Forest, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Forest, 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 Forest 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 Forest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Forest — the short answer
Forest, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 9K 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Forest's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Forest's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Forest
Each reading below is measured for Forest itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredForest runs about 222 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
MeasuredForest 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 Forest is in
Forest sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Forest's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bedford County.
What Grows in Forest
Every plant below cleared Forest's own zone 7b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Forest?
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 5 — 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 Forest
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Forest, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Forest
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Forest. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOREST AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- WALMART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET #3603Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- Duval Auto Parts IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- KROGER #0377-029Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- Kroger Fuel Center R-377Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- OLD COUNTS & DOBYNS OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WalMart Neighborhood Market 3603Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- INTERCON INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- THE STERLING BLOWER CO INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- ANDREW CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- THOMPSON AUTO RADIATOR SVCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Apple Market 201Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Forest'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 Forest.
Total Sites
773
within ~10 miles of Forest
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Forest
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Forest
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Forest, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 510 sites within ~10 miles of Forest. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Forest
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 Forest average
Your land is one point inside Forest
Everything above resolves to Forest as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Forest Average
Forest Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Forest
- ●One soil character for all of Forest
- ●Frost dates read at Forest's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Forest's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Forest
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Forest, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Forest averages can't show:
We read public map data around Forest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Forest average
How we know this about Forest
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 Forest’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 Forest
When does frost risk typically end in Forest?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Forest 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 Forest?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Forest typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Forest?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Forest sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 22, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Forest?
The federal record around Forest is a meaningful one — 773 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (510), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles 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 Forest?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Forest's scale — its 7b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Forest'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 Forest’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Forest's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,710 acres it covers and 773 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Forest's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Forest's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 5 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 773 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Forest, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Forest's boundary and the 8,710 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Forest's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Forestlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Forest's 8,710 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bedford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bedford 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 Bedford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Forest's 8,710 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Forest you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,710 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Forest-wide figureread your own land →
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