Ivanhoe, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ivanhoe, 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 Ivanhoe 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 Ivanhoe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ivanhoe — the short answer
Ivanhoe, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- 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 7a is Ivanhoe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ivanhoe's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ivanhoe
Each reading below is measured for Ivanhoe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIvanhoe runs about 194 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
MeasuredIvanhoe sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Ivanhoe is in
Ivanhoe sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ivanhoe's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wythe County.
What Grows in Ivanhoe
Every plant below cleared Ivanhoe's own zone 7a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ivanhoe?
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 Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Ivanhoe
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Ivanhoe, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ivanhoe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ivanhoe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GARNETT PEARMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- JOE COLLINS SER & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Robins Git N GoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 2400 ft
- Price Property ProspectMining · 0.7 mi
- Ivanhoe Lead Zinc MineMining · 0.7 mi
- Austinville East Lead Zinc MinesMining · 0.9 mi
- Price MineMining · 1.0 mi
- McClouds GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Simmerman ProspectMining · 1.4 mi
- Barndollar ProspectMining · 1.4 mi
- Jackson ProspectMining · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ivanhoe'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 Ivanhoe.
Total Sites
269
within ~10 miles of Ivanhoe
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ivanhoe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ivanhoe
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ivanhoe, Mining runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of Ivanhoe. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Ivanhoe
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 Ivanhoe average
Your land is one point inside Ivanhoe
Everything above resolves to Ivanhoe 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 Ivanhoe Average
Ivanhoe Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ivanhoe
- ●One soil character for all of Ivanhoe
- ●Frost dates read at Ivanhoe's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ivanhoe's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ivanhoe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ivanhoe, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ivanhoe averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ivanhoe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ivanhoe average
How we know this about Ivanhoe
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 Ivanhoe’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 Ivanhoe
When does frost risk typically end in Ivanhoe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ivanhoe typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Ivanhoe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ivanhoe typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ivanhoe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ivanhoe sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 10, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ivanhoe?
The federal record around Ivanhoe runs heavier than most — 269 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (142), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ivanhoe?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ivanhoe's scale — its 7a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ivanhoe'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 Ivanhoe’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ivanhoe's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,715 acres it covers and 269 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ivanhoe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ivanhoe's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 24 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 269 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ivanhoe, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ivanhoe's boundary and the 1,715 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ivanhoe's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ivanhoelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ivanhoe's 1,715 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wythe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wythe 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 Wythe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ivanhoe's 1,715 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ivanhoe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,715 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ivanhoe-wide figureread your own land →