Free Union, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Free Union, 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 Free Union 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 Free Union — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Free Union — the short answer
Free Union, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- 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 7b is Free Union's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Free Union's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Free Union
Each reading below is measured for Free Union itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFree Union runs about 229 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
MeasuredFree Union 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 Free Union is in
Free Union sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Free Union's own centroid rather than borrowed from Albemarle County.
What Grows in Free Union
Every plant below cleared Free Union's own zone 7b and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Free Union?
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 Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Free Union
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Free Union, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Free Union
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Free Union. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VDOT FREE UNION AHQBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Maupin Brothers StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Farrar WoltzUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Former Ed Maupin Store / Huckstep GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- VDOT - Free Union Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MARVIN L. HUDSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Hunt Country Corner StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- ON SITE OILBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- BLUE RIDGE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- COOPER ELECTRICAL DISTR PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- COOPER INDUSTRIES LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.5 mi
- COOPER INDUSTRIES LLCBrownfields · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Free Union'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 Free Union.
Total Sites
441
within ~10 miles of Free Union
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Free Union
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Free Union
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Free Union, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Free Union — Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (302 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Free Union
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 Free Union average
Your land is one point inside Free Union
Everything above resolves to Free Union 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 Free Union Average
Free Union Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Free Union
- ●One soil character for all of Free Union
- ●Frost dates read at Free Union's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Free Union's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Free Union
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Free Union, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Free Union averages can't show:
We read public map data around Free Union — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Free Union average
How we know this about Free Union
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 Free Union’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 Free Union
When does frost risk typically end in Free Union?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Free Union typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Free Union?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Free Union typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Free Union?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Free Union sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 27, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Free Union?
The federal record around Free Union is a meaningful one — 441 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (302), 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 Free Union?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Free Union's scale — its 7b band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Free Union'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 Free Union’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Free Union's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,281 acres it covers and 441 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Free Union's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Free Union's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 10 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 441 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Free Union, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Free Union's boundary and the 1,281 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Free Union's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Free Unionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Free Union's 1,281 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Albemarle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Albemarle 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 Albemarle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Free Union's 1,281 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Free Union you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,281 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 Free Union-wide figureread your own land →
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