Fort Belvoir, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Belvoir, 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 Fort Belvoir 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 Fort Belvoir — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Belvoir — the short answer
Fort Belvoir, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Fort Belvoir's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Belvoir's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Belvoir
Each reading below is measured for Fort Belvoir itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Belvoir runs about 246 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
MeasuredFort Belvoir 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 Fort Belvoir is in
Fort Belvoir sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Belvoir's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fairfax County is mostly Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fort Belvoir
Every plant below cleared Fort Belvoir's own zone 7b and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Belvoir?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Fort Belvoir
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Fort Belvoir, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort Belvoir
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Belvoir. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EURO MOTOR SERVICE, INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Natl Trust for Hist Pres Woodlawn PlantationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Woodlawn Auto Center IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Exxon R/S 25374Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- US ARMY - FORT BELVOIRToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- US ARMY - FORT BELVOIRBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- US ARMY - FORT BELVOIRSuperfund · 0.8 mi
- Shell - WoodlawnUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- IMP BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Hess Station 46207Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HESS STATION 46207Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- Route 1 Gas and GoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Belvoir'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 Fort Belvoir.
Total Sites
1,960
within ~10 miles of Fort Belvoir
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Belvoir
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Belvoir
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Fort Belvoir
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 Fort Belvoir average
Your land is one point inside Fort Belvoir
Everything above resolves to Fort Belvoir as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Fort Belvoir Average
Fort Belvoir Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Fort Belvoir
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Belvoir
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Belvoir's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Belvoir's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Belvoir
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Belvoir, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Belvoir averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Belvoir — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Belvoir average
How we know this about Fort Belvoir
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 Fort Belvoir’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 Fort Belvoir
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Belvoir?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Belvoir typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Fort Belvoir?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Belvoir typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Belvoir?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Belvoir sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 6, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Belvoir?
The federal record around Fort Belvoir is a meaningful one — 1,960 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,050), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Fort Belvoir?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Belvoir's scale — its 7b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Belvoir'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 Fort Belvoir’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort Belvoir's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,665 acres it covers and 1,960 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Belvoir's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Belvoir's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 20 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,960 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Belvoir, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Belvoir's boundary and the 5,665 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fort Belvoir sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fort Belvoirlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Belvoir's 5,665 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairfax 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 Fairfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Belvoir's 5,665 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Belvoir you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,665 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Fort Belvoir-wide figureread your own land →