Laurel Hill, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Laurel Hill, 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 Laurel Hill 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 Laurel Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Laurel Hill — the short answer
Laurel Hill, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 3K 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- 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 7b is Laurel Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Laurel Hill's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Laurel Hill
Each reading below is measured for Laurel Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLaurel Hill runs about 228 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
MeasuredLaurel Hill 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 Laurel Hill is in
Laurel Hill sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Laurel Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fairfax County.
What Grows in Laurel Hill
Every plant below cleared Laurel Hill's own zone 7b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Laurel Hill?
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 10 — 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 Laurel Hill
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Laurel Hill, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Laurel Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Laurel Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- D C DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONSBrownfields · 2500 ft
- NIKE SITE N-64 LAUNCHSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- REWORLD FAIRFAX LLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PMG NVA Shell 9045Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Lorton Correctional FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GRIFFITH RAW WATER PUMPING STATIONBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- LORTON CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WORKHOUSE ARTS CENTERBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- GRIFFITH WATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- PMG NVA Shell 9027Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- I-95 LANDFILLBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Fairfax Co I95 Landfill & Sludge Compost SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Laurel Hill'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 Laurel Hill.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Laurel Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Laurel Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Laurel Hill
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 Laurel Hill average
Your land is one point inside Laurel Hill
Everything above resolves to Laurel Hill 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 Laurel Hill Average
Laurel Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Laurel Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Laurel Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Laurel Hill's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Laurel Hill's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Laurel Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Laurel Hill, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Laurel Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Laurel Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Laurel Hill average
How we know this about Laurel Hill
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 Laurel Hill’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 Laurel Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Laurel Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Laurel Hill 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 Laurel Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Laurel Hill typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Laurel Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Laurel Hill sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 27, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Laurel Hill?
The federal record around Laurel Hill is a meaningful one — 1,527 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (787), the nearest Brownfields 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 Laurel Hill?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Laurel Hill's scale — its 7b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Laurel Hill'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 Laurel Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Laurel Hill's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,838 acres it covers and 1,527 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Laurel Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Laurel Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 10 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,527 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Laurel Hill, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Laurel Hill's boundary and the 2,838 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Laurel Hill's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Laurel Hilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Laurel Hill's 2,838 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairfax 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 Fairfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Laurel Hill's 2,838 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Laurel Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,838 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Laurel Hill-wide figureread your own land →