Fort Hunt, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Hunt, 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 Hunt 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 Hunt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Hunt — the short answer
Fort Hunt, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 8a is Fort Hunt's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Hunt's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Hunt
Each reading below is measured for Fort Hunt itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Hunt runs about 259 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 Hunt sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Hunt is in
Fort Hunt sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Hunt'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 Hunt
Every plant below cleared Fort Hunt's own zone 8a and its 259-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Hunt?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Fort Hunt
Spotted lanternfly documented 0 miles from Fort Hunt, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort Hunt
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Hunt. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALGREENS STORE #19804Brownfields · 2200 ft
- HOLLIN HALL CLEANERSBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Hollin Hall Automotive Services IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- COL BROYLES RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SANDBURG INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SAFEWAY STORE #878Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- AMOCO OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- STRATFORD LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WELLINGTON #1 PUMPING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Fort Hunt Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Mount Vernon HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Hunt'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 Hunt.
Total Sites
2,284
within ~10 miles of Fort Hunt
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
26 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Hunt
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Hunt
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Fort Hunt
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 Hunt average
Your land is one point inside Fort Hunt
Everything above resolves to Fort Hunt as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Hunt Average
Fort Hunt Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Fort Hunt
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Hunt
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Hunt's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Hunt's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Hunt
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Hunt, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Hunt averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Hunt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Hunt average
How we know this about Fort Hunt
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 Hunt’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 Hunt
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Hunt?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Hunt typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Fort Hunt?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Hunt typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 259 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Hunt?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Hunt sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 14, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Hunt?
The federal record around Fort Hunt is a meaningful one — 2,284 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,244), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Hunt?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Hunt's scale — its 8a band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Hunt'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 Hunt’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort Hunt's own scale — its own ~259-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,745 acres it covers and 2,284 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Hunt's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Hunt's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 28 and the ~259-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,284 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Hunt, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Hunt's boundary and the 3,745 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fort Hunt 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 Huntlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Hunt's 3,745 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 Hunt's 3,745 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Hunt you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,745 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Hunt-wide figureread your own land →