Lake Monticello, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lake Monticello, 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 Monticello 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 Monticello — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Monticello — the short answer
Lake Monticello, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Lake Monticello's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Monticello's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Monticello
Each reading below is measured for Lake Monticello itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Monticello runs about 213 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 Monticello 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 Lake Monticello is in
Lake Monticello sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Monticello's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fluvanna County.
What Grows in Lake Monticello
Every plant below cleared Lake Monticello's own zone 7a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Monticello?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Lake Monticello
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Lake Monticello, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Monticello
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Monticello. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILDWOOD SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PALMYRA GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FLUVANNA SHERIFFS OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WILLIE G. SMITHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Everyday #3525Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Midhaven Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- The Market at Lake MonticelloUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Lake MonticelloUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #0947Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- Cunnningham MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Black Run ProspectMining · 3.2 mi
- PALMYRA - DIVISION IIIUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Monticello'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 Monticello.
Total Sites
115
within ~10 miles of Lake Monticello
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Monticello
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Monticello
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Monticello, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 85 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Monticello. 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.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Monticello
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 Monticello average
Your land is one point inside Lake Monticello
Everything above resolves to Lake Monticello as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Monticello Average
Lake Monticello Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Lake Monticello
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Monticello
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Monticello's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Monticello's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Monticello
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Monticello, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Monticello averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Monticello — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Monticello average
How we know this about Lake Monticello
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 Monticello’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 Monticello
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Monticello?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Monticello typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Lake Monticello?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Monticello typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Monticello?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Monticello sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 19, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Monticello?
The federal record around Lake Monticello shows 115 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), 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 Monticello?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Monticello's scale — its 7a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Monticello'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 Monticello’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Monticello's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,661 acres it covers and 115 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Monticello's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Monticello's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 2 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 115 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Monticello, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Monticello's boundary and the 5,661 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Monticello's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lake Monticellolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Monticello's 5,661 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fluvanna County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fluvanna 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 Fluvanna County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Monticello's 5,661 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Monticello you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,661 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 Monticello-wide figureread your own land →