Martinsville, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Martinsville, 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 Martinsville 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 Martinsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Martinsville — the short answer
Martinsville, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Martinsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Martinsville's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Martinsville
Each reading below is measured for Martinsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMartinsville runs about 215 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
MeasuredMartinsville 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 Martinsville is in
Martinsville sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Martinsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Martinsville city.
What Grows in Martinsville
Every plant below cleared Martinsville's own zone 7b and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Martinsville?
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 Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Martinsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Martinsville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Martinsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Martinsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BASSETT WALKER INC DISTRIBUTION PLTBrownfields · 1000 ft
- MARTINSVILLE CONCRETE PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FIRST BAPTIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SARA LEE KNIT PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- AMERICAN FURNITURE CO PLANT 1 & 4Toxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- Main Complex - Main Office & Plants 1 2 4 11Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PANNILL KNITTINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- THE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Sparkys #5Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MITCHELL TRACTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MRS C W RAMSEY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LEES TIRE & WHEELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Martinsville'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 Martinsville.
Total Sites
579
within ~10 miles of Martinsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Martinsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Martinsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Martinsville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Martinsville — Toxics Release Inventory (49 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (426 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Martinsville
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 Martinsville average
Your land is one point inside Martinsville
Everything above resolves to Martinsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 city 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 Martinsville Average
Martinsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Martinsville
- ●One soil character for all of Martinsville
- ●Frost dates read at Martinsville's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Martinsville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Martinsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Martinsville, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Martinsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Martinsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Martinsville average
How we know this about Martinsville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Martinsville’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Martinsville
When does frost risk typically end in Martinsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Martinsville typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Martinsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Martinsville typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Martinsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Martinsville sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 20, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Martinsville?
The federal record around Martinsville is a meaningful one — 579 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (426), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Martinsville?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Martinsville's scale — its 7b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Martinsville'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 Martinsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Martinsville's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,012 acres it covers and 579 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Martinsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Martinsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 3 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 579 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Martinsville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Martinsville's boundary and the 7,012 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Martinsville's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Martinsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Martinsville's 7,012 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Martinsville County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Martinsville 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 Martinsville County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Martinsville's 7,012 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Martinsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,012 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Martinsville-wide figureread your own land →
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