Meadowbrook, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Meadowbrook, 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 Meadowbrook 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 Meadowbrook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Meadowbrook — the short answer
Meadowbrook, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Meadowbrook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Meadowbrook's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Meadowbrook
Each reading below is measured for Meadowbrook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMeadowbrook runs about 232 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
MeasuredMeadowbrook 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 Meadowbrook is in
Meadowbrook sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Meadowbrook's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Chesterfield County is mostly Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Meadowbrook
Every plant below cleared Meadowbrook's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Meadowbrook?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Meadowbrook
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Meadowbrook, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Meadowbrook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Meadowbrook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHESTERFIELD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT (HOPKINS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL)Brownfields · 2000 ft
- SPENCERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BEULAH UNITED METHODIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Beulah Road BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CHESTERFIELD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT (BEULAH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL)Brownfields · 2600 ft
- WALGREENS STORE #3684Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- USPS - Ampthill Branch Post OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Chesterfield County Meadowbrook High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MEAOWBROOK HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ROBERT TOLLIVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GEORGE WALKER TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Bell AtlanticUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Meadowbrook'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 Meadowbrook.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Meadowbrook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Meadowbrook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Meadowbrook, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,471 sites within ~10 miles of Meadowbrook. 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 Meadowbrook
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 Meadowbrook average
Your land is one point inside Meadowbrook
Everything above resolves to Meadowbrook as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Meadowbrook Average
Meadowbrook Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Meadowbrook
- ●One soil character for all of Meadowbrook
- ●Frost dates read at Meadowbrook's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Meadowbrook's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Meadowbrook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Meadowbrook, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Meadowbrook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Meadowbrook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Meadowbrook average
How we know this about Meadowbrook
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 Meadowbrook’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 Meadowbrook
When does frost risk typically end in Meadowbrook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Meadowbrook typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Meadowbrook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Meadowbrook typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Meadowbrook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Meadowbrook sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 29, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Meadowbrook?
The federal record around Meadowbrook is a meaningful one — 2,272 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,471), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Meadowbrook?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Meadowbrook's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Meadowbrook'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 Meadowbrook’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Meadowbrook's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,216 acres it covers and 2,272 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Meadowbrook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Meadowbrook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 12 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,272 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Meadowbrook, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Meadowbrook's boundary and the 5,216 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Meadowbrook sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Meadowbrooklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Meadowbrook's 5,216 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chesterfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chesterfield 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 Chesterfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Meadowbrook's 5,216 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Meadowbrook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,216 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Meadowbrook-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Growing region
Nearby growing guides