Gretna, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Gretna, 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 Gretna 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 Gretna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gretna — the short answer
Gretna, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- 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 Gretna's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gretna's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gretna
Each reading below is measured for Gretna itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGretna runs about 217 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
MeasuredGretna 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 Gretna is in
Gretna sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gretna's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pittsylvania County.
What Grows in Gretna
Every plant below cleared Gretna's own zone 7b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gretna?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Gretna
Spotted lanternfly documented 12 miles from Gretna, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gretna
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gretna. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Southern States Chatham Coop Gretna BranchUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Gretna Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SE CORNER OLD DALTON MOTORS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- PEOPLES MUTUAL TELE-SANDY LEVEL SWITCH STATIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- People Mutual Telephone Gretna FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Bright GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- James Thompson GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MRS B B CRANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- HAROLD SIMPSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BARLOWS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- I L PEAKS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gretna'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 Gretna.
Total Sites
162
within ~10 miles of Gretna
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gretna
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gretna
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gretna, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 145 sites within ~10 miles of Gretna. 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 Gretna
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 Gretna average
Your land is one point inside Gretna
Everything above resolves to Gretna 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 Gretna Average
Gretna Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Gretna
- ●One soil character for all of Gretna
- ●Frost dates read at Gretna's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gretna's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gretna
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gretna, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gretna averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gretna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gretna average
How we know this about Gretna
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 Gretna’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 Gretna
When does frost risk typically end in Gretna?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gretna typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Gretna?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gretna typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gretna?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gretna sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 22, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gretna?
The federal record around Gretna shows 162 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (145), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Gretna?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gretna's scale — its 7b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gretna'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 Gretna’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gretna's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,068 acres it covers and 162 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gretna's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gretna's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 5 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 162 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gretna, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gretna's boundary and the 1,068 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gretna's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gretnalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gretna's 1,068 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pittsylvania County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pittsylvania 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 Pittsylvania County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gretna's 1,068 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gretna you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,068 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Gretna-wide figureread your own land →
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