Mendota, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mendota, 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 Mendota 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 Mendota — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mendota — the short answer
Mendota, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 628 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 628 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 Mendota's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mendota's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mendota
Each reading below is measured for Mendota itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMendota runs about 218 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
MeasuredMendota 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 Mendota is in
Mendota sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mendota's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Mendota
Every plant below cleared Mendota's own zone 7b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mendota?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Mendota
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Mendota, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mendota
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mendota. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mendota General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LEONARDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- SPECTRA ENERGY - EARLY GROVE STATION, VABrownfields · 4.1 mi
- MURRAYS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- BENHAMS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- VALLEY INSTITUTE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- Millers Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- FIELDS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- J and P MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- REEDY COAL YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- Osborn MineMining · 6.5 mi
- SEARS 2425Brownfields · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mendota'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 Mendota.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of Mendota
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mendota
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mendota
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mendota, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 109 sites within ~10 miles of Mendota. 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 Mendota
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 Mendota average
Your land is one point inside Mendota
Everything above resolves to Mendota as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 628 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 Mendota Average
Mendota Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Mendota
- ●One soil character for all of Mendota
- ●Frost dates read at Mendota's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mendota's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mendota
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mendota, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mendota averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mendota — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mendota average
How we know this about Mendota
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 Mendota’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 Mendota
When does frost risk typically end in Mendota?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mendota typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Mendota?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mendota typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mendota?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mendota sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 21, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mendota?
The federal record around Mendota shows 149 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mendota?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mendota's scale — its 7b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mendota'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 Mendota’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mendota's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 628 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mendota's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mendota's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 4 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mendota, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mendota's boundary and the 628 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mendota's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mendotalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mendota's 628 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mendota's 628 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mendota you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 628 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Mendota-wide figureread your own land →
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