Ivy, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ivy, 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 Ivy 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 Ivy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ivy — the short answer
Ivy, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- 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 Ivy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ivy's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ivy
Each reading below is measured for Ivy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIvy runs about 231 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
MeasuredIvy 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 Ivy is in
Ivy sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ivy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Albemarle County.
What Grows in Ivy
Every plant below cleared Ivy's own zone 7b and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ivy?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Ivy
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Ivy, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ivy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ivy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Toddsbury of Ivy ConvenienceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Ivy ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- IVY PUMPING STATION - CROZET #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SOUTHWOOD PARK & MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WESTVACO IVY WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DETTOR, EDWARDS & MORRIS WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MERIWETHER LEWIS ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CROZET TOWNSHIP ORCHARD SITESuperfund · 1.6 mi
- MECHUMS RIVER PUMPING STATION - CROZET #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 250 W PUMPING STATION - CROZET #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- IVY NURSERY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Christian Aid MissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ivy'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 Ivy.
Total Sites
529
within ~10 miles of Ivy
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ivy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ivy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ivy, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ivy — Underground Storage Tanks (372 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (33 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ivy
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 Ivy average
Your land is one point inside Ivy
Everything above resolves to Ivy 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 Ivy Average
Ivy Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ivy
- ●One soil character for all of Ivy
- ●Frost dates read at Ivy's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ivy's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ivy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ivy, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ivy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ivy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ivy average
How we know this about Ivy
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 Ivy’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 Ivy
When does frost risk typically end in Ivy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ivy typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Ivy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ivy typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ivy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ivy sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 29, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ivy?
The federal record around Ivy is a meaningful one — 529 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (372), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Ivy?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ivy's scale — its 7b band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ivy'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 Ivy’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ivy's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,511 acres it covers and 529 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ivy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ivy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 12 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 529 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ivy, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ivy's boundary and the 1,511 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ivy's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ivylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ivy's 1,511 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Albemarle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Albemarle 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 Albemarle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ivy's 1,511 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ivy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,511 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 Ivy-wide figureread your own land →