Mount Sidney, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Mount Sidney, 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 Mount Sidney 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 Mount Sidney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Sidney — the short answer
Mount Sidney, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 7a is Mount Sidney's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Sidney's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Sidney
Each reading below is measured for Mount Sidney itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Sidney runs about 213 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
MeasuredMount Sidney sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Mount Sidney is in
Mount Sidney sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Sidney's own centroid rather than borrowed from Augusta County.
What Grows in Mount Sidney
Every plant below cleared Mount Sidney's own zone 7a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Sidney?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 1 — 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 Mount Sidney
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Mount Sidney, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mount Sidney
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Sidney. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORT DEFIANCE HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HUFFMAN LAWN & GARDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MT. SIDNEY PLAZASuperfund · 0.7 mi
- S.G. STEWART MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Royal Station #8Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SCAGLIONE PROPERTY / FORMER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Closed Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Taylors GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CROSBY TRUCKING SERVICE, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- I-81 TRACTOR TRAILER CHEMICAL SPILLSuperfund · 1.9 mi
- BLUE RIDGE COMMUNITY COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- BLUE RIDGE COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Sidney'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 Mount Sidney.
Total Sites
449
within ~10 miles of Mount Sidney
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Sidney
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Sidney
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Sidney, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mount Sidney — Underground Storage Tanks (337 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Mount Sidney
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 Mount Sidney average
Your land is one point inside Mount Sidney
Everything above resolves to Mount Sidney as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Mount Sidney Average
Mount Sidney Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mount Sidney
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Sidney
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Sidney's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Sidney's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Sidney
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Sidney, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Sidney averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Sidney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Sidney average
How we know this about Mount Sidney
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 Mount Sidney’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 Mount Sidney
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Sidney?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Sidney 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 Mount Sidney?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Sidney typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Sidney?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Sidney sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 18, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Sidney?
The federal record around Mount Sidney is a meaningful one — 449 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (337), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Mount Sidney?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Sidney's scale — its 7a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Sidney'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 Mount Sidney’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mount Sidney's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,063 acres it covers and 449 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Sidney's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Sidney's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 1 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 449 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Sidney, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Sidney's boundary and the 1,063 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Sidney's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mount Sidneylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Sidney's 1,063 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Augusta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Augusta 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 Augusta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Sidney's 1,063 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Sidney you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,063 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Mount Sidney-wide figureread your own land →