Glenvar, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Glenvar, 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 Glenvar 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 Glenvar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Glenvar — the short answer
Glenvar, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 892 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- 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
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 892 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 Glenvar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glenvar's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glenvar
Each reading below is measured for Glenvar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGlenvar runs about 228 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
MeasuredGlenvar 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 Glenvar is in
Glenvar sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Glenvar's own centroid rather than borrowed from Roanoke County.
What Grows in Glenvar
Every plant below cleared Glenvar's own zone 7b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glenvar?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Glenvar
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Glenvar, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Glenvar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glenvar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEPARTMENT OF STATE POLICEBrownfields · 450 ft
- VSP - Division 6 HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Kroger DistributionUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Richfield Retirement CommunityUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- AMERICOLD ROANOKEToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- AMERICOLD ROANOKEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- JAMES RIVER EQUIPMENT COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MEDECO SECURITY LOCKS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- MEDECO SECURITY LOCKS INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- GREENWOOD MOTORLINES DBA R&L CARRIERSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- DYNAROK INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Turner BrothersUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glenvar'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 Glenvar.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glenvar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glenvar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Glenvar, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 573 sites within ~10 miles of Glenvar. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Glenvar
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 Glenvar average
Your land is one point inside Glenvar
Everything above resolves to Glenvar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 892 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 Glenvar Average
Glenvar Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Glenvar
- ●One soil character for all of Glenvar
- ●Frost dates read at Glenvar's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glenvar's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glenvar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glenvar, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glenvar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glenvar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glenvar average
How we know this about Glenvar
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 Glenvar’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 Glenvar
When does frost risk typically end in Glenvar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glenvar typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Glenvar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glenvar 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 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glenvar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glenvar sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 27, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glenvar?
The federal record around Glenvar is a meaningful one — 899 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (573), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Glenvar?
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 Glenvar's scale — its 7b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glenvar'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 Glenvar’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Glenvar's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 892 acres it covers and 899 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glenvar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Glenvar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 10 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 899 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glenvar, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glenvar's boundary and the 892 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Glenvar's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Glenvarlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Glenvar's 892 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Roanoke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Roanoke 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 Roanoke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glenvar's 892 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glenvar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 892 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Glenvar-wide figureread your own land →
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