Idylwood, 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 Idylwood, 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 Idylwood 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 Idylwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Idylwood — the short answer
Idylwood, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Idylwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Idylwood's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Idylwood
Each reading below is measured for Idylwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIdylwood runs about 235 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
MeasuredIdylwood 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 Idylwood is in
Idylwood sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Idylwood's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fairfax County is mostly Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Idylwood
Every plant below cleared Idylwood's own zone 7b and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Idylwood?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Idylwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Idylwood, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Idylwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Idylwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NATIONAL MEMORIAL PARK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LEO T. THIBODEAN, GC, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- VIRGINIA CONCRETE - FALLS CHURCH PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- VIRGINIA CONCRETE FALLS CHURCH PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- FALLS CHURCH CITY OFBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- DALE LUMBER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GEORGE MASON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- DIXIE SHEET METAL WORKS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CITY OF FALLS CHURCH MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PARAMOUNT TERMITE CONTROL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CRAFTSMAN AUTO BODY INCORPORATED - GORDON RDBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- DON BEYER MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Idylwood'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 Idylwood.
Total Sites
4,141
within ~10 miles of Idylwood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
32 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Idylwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Idylwood
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Idylwood
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 Idylwood average
Your land is one point inside Idylwood
Everything above resolves to Idylwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Idylwood Average
Idylwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Idylwood
- ●One soil character for all of Idylwood
- ●Frost dates read at Idylwood's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Idylwood's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Idylwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Idylwood, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Idylwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Idylwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Idylwood average
How we know this about Idylwood
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 Idylwood’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 Idylwood
When does frost risk typically end in Idylwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Idylwood typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Idylwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Idylwood typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Idylwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Idylwood sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 31, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Idylwood?
The federal record around Idylwood is a meaningful one — 4,141 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,176), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Idylwood?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Idylwood's scale — its 7b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Idylwood'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 Idylwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Idylwood's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,793 acres it covers and 4,141 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Idylwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Idylwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 14 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,141 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Idylwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Idylwood's boundary and the 1,793 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Idylwood sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Idylwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Idylwood's 1,793 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairfax 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 Fairfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Idylwood's 1,793 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Idylwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,793 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Idylwood-wide figureread your own land →