Gratton, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gratton, 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 Gratton 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 Gratton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gratton — the short answer
Gratton, Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 6b is Gratton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gratton's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gratton
Each reading below is measured for Gratton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGratton runs about 188 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGratton sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Gratton is in
Gratton sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gratton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tazewell County.
What Grows in Gratton
Every plant below cleared Gratton's own zone 6b and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gratton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Gratton
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Gratton, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gratton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gratton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JRs Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Gas-N-GuzzleUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- J L Sexton and Son IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CPI TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Tims RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- TECHNIFAB OF VIRGINIA INCBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- Happy MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- VDOT - Springville Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Tazewell County LandfillUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- FORMER TRADING POST GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Fas Mart 452Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Pop Shop 1Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gratton'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 Gratton.
Total Sites
116
within ~10 miles of Gratton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gratton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gratton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gratton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 83 sites within ~10 miles of Gratton. 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 Gratton
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 Gratton average
Your land is one point inside Gratton
Everything above resolves to Gratton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Gratton Average
Gratton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Gratton
- ●One soil character for all of Gratton
- ●Frost dates read at Gratton's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gratton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gratton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gratton, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gratton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gratton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gratton average
How we know this about Gratton
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 Gratton’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 Gratton
When does frost risk typically end in Gratton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gratton typically lands around Apr 18, 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 May 9.
When is the first frost in Gratton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gratton typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gratton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gratton sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 9, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gratton?
The federal record around Gratton shows 116 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (83), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gratton?
From about Sep 23 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 Oct 23 (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 Oct 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gratton's scale — its 6b band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gratton'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 Gratton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gratton's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,477 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gratton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gratton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 23 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gratton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gratton's boundary and the 3,477 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gratton's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Grattonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gratton's 3,477 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tazewell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tazewell 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 Tazewell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gratton's 3,477 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gratton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,477 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Gratton-wide figureread your own land →
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