Heathsville, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Heathsville, 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 Heathsville 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 Heathsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Heathsville — the short answer
Heathsville, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- 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 8a is Heathsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Heathsville's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Heathsville
Each reading below is measured for Heathsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHeathsville runs about 257 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
MeasuredHeathsville sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Heathsville is in
Heathsville sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Heathsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Northumberland County.
What Grows in Heathsville
Every plant below cleared Heathsville's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Heathsville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Heathsville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Heathsville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 32 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Heathsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Heathsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Northumberland Sheriffs DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Heathville BuoyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Courtesy Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Northumberland High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Arcadia Motors IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- The Handy StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Harveys Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Northumberland Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Northumberland County Auxiliary Service CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Kar Mar MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Paul B JonesUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Coan Stage GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Heathsville'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 Heathsville.
Total Sites
164
within ~10 miles of Heathsville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Heathsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Heathsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Heathsville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 137 sites within ~10 miles of Heathsville. 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 Heathsville
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 Heathsville average
Your land is one point inside Heathsville
Everything above resolves to Heathsville 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 Heathsville Average
Heathsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Heathsville
- ●One soil character for all of Heathsville
- ●Frost dates read at Heathsville's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Heathsville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Heathsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Heathsville, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Heathsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Heathsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Heathsville average
How we know this about Heathsville
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 Heathsville’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 Heathsville
When does frost risk typically end in Heathsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Heathsville typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Heathsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Heathsville typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Heathsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Heathsville sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 15, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Heathsville?
The federal record around Heathsville shows 164 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (137), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Heathsville?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Heathsville's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Heathsville'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 Heathsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Heathsville's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,550 acres it covers and 164 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Heathsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Heathsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 29 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 164 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Heathsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Heathsville's boundary and the 2,550 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Heathsville's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Heathsville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Heathsville's 2,550 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Northumberland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Northumberland 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 Northumberland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Heathsville's 2,550 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Heathsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,550 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Heathsville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Growing region
Nearby growing guides