Lake of the Woods, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake of the Woods, 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 of the Woods 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 of the Woods — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake of the Woods — the short answer
Lake of the Woods, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 of the Woods's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake of the Woods's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake of the Woods
Each reading below is measured for Lake of the Woods itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake of the Woods runs about 224 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 of the Woods 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 of the Woods is in
Lake of the Woods sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake of the Woods's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Lake of the Woods
Every plant below cleared Lake of the Woods's own zone 7a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake of the Woods?
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 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 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Lake of the Woods
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Lake of the Woods, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake of the Woods
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake of the Woods. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LAKE OF THE WOODS UTILITY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- THE CAR DOCTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #7594Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- LAKE OF THE WOODS ASSOC - Main Marina Fuel TaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- LOCUST GROVE VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Sheetz #323Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SHEETZ, INC. #323Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- 7 Eleven 19321Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 7-ELEVEN, INC. #19321Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- Lakeview MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Greenwood ProspectMining · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake of the Woods'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 of the Woods.
Total Sites
96
within ~10 miles of Lake of the Woods
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake of the Woods
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake of the Woods
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake of the Woods, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake of the Woods — Mining (19 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (61 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lake of the Woods
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 of the Woods average
Your land is one point inside Lake of the Woods
Everything above resolves to Lake of the Woods as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 of the Woods Average
Lake of the Woods Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Lake of the Woods
- ●One soil character for all of Lake of the Woods
- ●Frost dates read at Lake of the Woods's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake of the Woods's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake of the Woods
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake of the Woods, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake of the Woods averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake of the Woods — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake of the Woods average
How we know this about Lake of the Woods
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 of the Woods’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 of the Woods
When does frost risk typically end in Lake of the Woods?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake of the Woods 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 of the Woods?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake of the Woods typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake of the Woods?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake of the Woods sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 23, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake of the Woods?
The federal record around Lake of the Woods runs heavier than most — 96 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Lake of the Woods?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake of the Woods's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake of the Woods'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 of the Woods’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake of the Woods's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,170 acres it covers and 96 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake of the Woods's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake of the Woods's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 6 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 96 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake of the Woods, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake of the Woods's boundary and the 3,170 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake of the Woods's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lake of the Woodslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake of the Woods's 3,170 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange 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 Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake of the Woods's 3,170 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake of the Woods you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,170 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 of the Woods-wide figureread your own land →