Navy, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Navy, 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 Navy 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 Navy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Navy — the short answer
Navy, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 868 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 868 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 Navy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Navy's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Navy
Each reading below is measured for Navy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNavy runs about 225 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
MeasuredNavy 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 Navy is in
Navy sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Navy's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fairfax County is mostly Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Navy
Every plant below cleared Navy's own zone 7b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Navy?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Navy
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Navy, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Navy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Navy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 51V 4JNitrate · 950 ft
- Former Waddell Residence & BusinessUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 51V 5JNitrate · 1600 ft
- INOVA FAIR OAKS HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FAIR OAKS HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Greenbriar ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GREENBRIAR CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- GIANT FOOD STORE #745Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- International Country ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 7-ELEVEN #23427Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ABANDONED LOT / ROWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TEST FACILITY 42817 TRIFID SYNCToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Navy'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 Navy.
Total Sites
2,100
within ~10 miles of Navy
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Navy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Navy
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Navy
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 Navy average
Your land is one point inside Navy
Everything above resolves to Navy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 868 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 Navy Average
Navy Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Navy
- ●One soil character for all of Navy
- ●Frost dates read at Navy's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Navy's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Navy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Navy, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Navy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Navy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Navy average
How we know this about Navy
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 Navy’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 Navy
When does frost risk typically end in Navy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Navy typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Navy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Navy typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Navy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Navy sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 27, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Navy?
The federal record around Navy is a meaningful one — 2,100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,034), the nearest Nitrate 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 Navy?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Navy's scale — its 7b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Navy'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 Navy’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Navy's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 868 acres it covers and 2,100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Navy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Navy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 10 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Navy, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Navy's boundary and the 868 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Navy sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Navylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Navy's 868 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairfax 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 Fairfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Navy's 868 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Navy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 868 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Navy-wide figureread your own land →