Monterey, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Monterey, 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 Monterey 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 Monterey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Monterey — the short answer
Monterey, Virginia: USDA zone 6a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 202 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 202 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 6a is Monterey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Monterey's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Monterey
Each reading below is measured for Monterey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMonterey runs about 176 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMonterey sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Monterey is in
Monterey sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Monterey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Highland County.
What Grows in Monterey
Every plant below cleared Monterey's own zone 6a and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Monterey?
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 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Monterey
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Monterey, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Monterey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Monterey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HIGHLAND OIL - BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- GALFORDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- RECORDER PUBLISHING OF VA INCBrownfields · 350 ft
- Ernies MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Fast Break Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- MONTEREY GARAGE; PARTS & HARDWARUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- GUTSHALLS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- VA DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION (MONTEREY)Brownfields · 1200 ft
- VDOT Monterey Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 34R 1Nitrate · 1600 ft
- Highland Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HEVENERS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Monterey'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 Monterey.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Monterey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Monterey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Monterey, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Monterey. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Monterey
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 Monterey average
Your land is one point inside Monterey
Everything above resolves to Monterey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 202 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 Monterey Average
Monterey Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Monterey
- ●One soil character for all of Monterey
- ●Frost dates read at Monterey's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Monterey's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Monterey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Monterey, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Monterey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Monterey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monterey average
How we know this about Monterey
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 Monterey’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 Monterey
When does frost risk typically end in Monterey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Monterey typically lands around Apr 26, 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 May 17.
When is the first frost in Monterey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Monterey typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Monterey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Monterey sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 5, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Monterey?
The federal record around Monterey is light — 32 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Monterey?
From about Sep 19 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 Oct 19 (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 Oct 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Monterey's scale — its 6a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Monterey'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 Monterey’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Monterey's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 202 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Monterey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Monterey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 19 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Monterey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Monterey's boundary and the 202 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Monterey's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Montereylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Monterey's 202 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Highland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Highland 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 Highland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Monterey's 202 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Monterey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 202 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Monterey-wide figureread your own land →