Hanover, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hanover, 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 Hanover 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 Hanover — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hanover — the short answer
Hanover, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 760 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 760 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 Hanover's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hanover's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hanover
Each reading below is measured for Hanover itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHanover runs about 233 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
MeasuredHanover 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 Hanover is in
Hanover sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hanover's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hanover County.
What Grows in Hanover
Every plant below cleared Hanover's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hanover?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 Hanover
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Hanover, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hanover
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hanover. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kelley Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Budget Storage FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Dyson's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- OLD HANOVER COURTHOUSE VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Old Henry Fire StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- COURTHOUSE AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Courthouse Esso Auto Service (Closed)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 301 ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GEORGE A. BLAKE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COURTHOUSE FIRE ADMIN BLDG (PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WILLIAMS & SONS HAULINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Vaughan/Bradley Law Enforcement BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hanover'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 Hanover.
Total Sites
499
within ~10 miles of Hanover
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hanover
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hanover
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hanover, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 345 sites within ~10 miles of Hanover. 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 Hanover
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 Hanover average
Your land is one point inside Hanover
Everything above resolves to Hanover as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 760 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 Hanover Average
Hanover Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hanover
- ●One soil character for all of Hanover
- ●Frost dates read at Hanover's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hanover's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hanover
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hanover, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hanover averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hanover — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hanover average
How we know this about Hanover
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 Hanover’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 Hanover
When does frost risk typically end in Hanover?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hanover typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Hanover?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hanover typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hanover?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hanover sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 30, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hanover?
The federal record around Hanover is a meaningful one — 499 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (345), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Hanover?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hanover's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hanover'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 Hanover’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hanover's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 760 acres it covers and 499 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hanover's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hanover's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 13 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 499 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hanover, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hanover's boundary and the 760 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hanover's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hanoverlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hanover's 760 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hanover County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hanover 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 Hanover County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hanover's 760 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hanover you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 760 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Hanover-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaHanover sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides