Lowes Island, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lowes Island, 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 Lowes Island 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 Lowes Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lowes Island — the short answer
Lowes Island, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- 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 Lowes Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lowes Island's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lowes Island
Each reading below is measured for Lowes Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLowes Island runs about 221 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
MeasuredLowes Island 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 Lowes Island is in
Lowes Island sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lowes Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Loudoun County.
What Grows in Lowes Island
Every plant below cleared Lowes Island's own zone 7b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lowes Island?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Lowes Island
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Lowes Island, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lowes Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lowes Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALGREENS STORE #17200Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- LCPS - LOWES ISLAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Sunoco 0398 8292 01Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- POTOMAC RAW WATER PUMPING STATIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- ALGONKIAN REGIONAL GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 51W 2FNitrate · 1.3 mi
- Shell VA 654Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LCPS - MEADOWLAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- J&J CLEANERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 7 Eleven Store 30483Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 7-ELEVEN #30483Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- LCPS - HORIZON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lowes Island'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 Lowes Island.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lowes Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lowes Island
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •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.
Check your specific parcel in Lowes Island
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 Lowes Island average
Your land is one point inside Lowes Island
Everything above resolves to Lowes Island 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 Lowes Island Average
Lowes Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Lowes Island
- ●One soil character for all of Lowes Island
- ●Frost dates read at Lowes Island's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lowes Island's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lowes Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lowes Island, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lowes Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lowes Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lowes Island average
How we know this about Lowes Island
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 Lowes Island’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 Lowes Island
When does frost risk typically end in Lowes Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lowes Island typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Lowes Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lowes Island typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lowes Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lowes Island sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 22, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lowes Island?
The federal record around Lowes Island is a meaningful one — 1,188 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (572), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Lowes Island?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lowes Island's scale — its 7b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lowes Island'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 Lowes Island’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lowes Island's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,931 acres it covers and 1,188 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lowes Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lowes Island's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 5 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,188 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lowes Island, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lowes Island's boundary and the 1,931 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lowes Island's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lowes Islandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lowes Island's 1,931 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Loudoun County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Loudoun 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 Loudoun County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lowes Island's 1,931 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lowes Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,931 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Lowes Island-wide figureread your own land →