Lake Caroline, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Lake Caroline, 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 Lake Caroline 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 Lake Caroline — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Caroline — the short answer
Lake Caroline, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- 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 Lake Caroline's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Caroline's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Caroline
Each reading below is measured for Lake Caroline itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Caroline runs about 227 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
MeasuredLake Caroline 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 Lake Caroline is in
Lake Caroline sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Caroline's own centroid rather than borrowed from Caroline County.
What Grows in Lake Caroline
Every plant below cleared Lake Caroline's own zone 7b and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Caroline?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Lake Caroline
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Lake Caroline, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Caroline
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Caroline. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE CAROLINE PROP OWNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 50M 8Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 50M 9Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 50M 10Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 50M 12Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 50M 11Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 50M 13Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- VDOT Ladysmith Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GOLANSVILLE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 50M 15Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 50M 14Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 50M 3Nitrate · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Caroline'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 Lake Caroline.
Total Sites
196
within ~10 miles of Lake Caroline
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Caroline
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Caroline
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Caroline
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 Lake Caroline average
Your land is one point inside Lake Caroline
Everything above resolves to Lake Caroline 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 Lake Caroline Average
Lake Caroline Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Lake Caroline
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Caroline
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Caroline's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Caroline's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Caroline
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Caroline, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Caroline averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Caroline — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Caroline average
How we know this about Lake Caroline
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 Lake Caroline’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 Lake Caroline
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Caroline?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Caroline typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Lake Caroline?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Caroline typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Caroline?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Caroline sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 26, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Caroline?
The federal record around Lake Caroline shows 196 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (118), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Lake Caroline?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Caroline's scale — its 7b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Caroline'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 Lake Caroline’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Caroline's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,816 acres it covers and 196 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Caroline's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Caroline's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 9 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 196 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Caroline, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Caroline's boundary and the 1,816 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Caroline's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lake Carolinelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Caroline's 1,816 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Caroline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Caroline 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 Caroline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Caroline's 1,816 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Caroline you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,816 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 Lake Caroline-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaLake Caroline sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides