North Garden, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in North Garden, 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 North Garden 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 North Garden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Garden — the short answer
North Garden, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 North Garden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Garden's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Garden
Each reading below is measured for North Garden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Garden runs about 234 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
MeasuredNorth Garden 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 North Garden is in
North Garden sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Garden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Albemarle County.
What Grows in North Garden
Every plant below cleared North Garden's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Garden?
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 14 — 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 North Garden
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from North Garden, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Garden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Garden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RED HILL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Xpressway dba TheTrading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Augusta Lumber, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Campbell Lumber Company IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Crossroad Store SouthUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MARTIN MARIETTA - RED HILL QUARRYBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Martin Marietta Aggregates Red Hill QuarryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- LAIRD & COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BATTENS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRYBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- Cauls GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- IVY LANDFILLBrownfields · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Garden'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 North Garden.
Total Sites
322
within ~10 miles of North Garden
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Garden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Garden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Garden, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Garden — Toxics Release Inventory (25 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (232 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in North Garden
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 North Garden average
Your land is one point inside North Garden
Everything above resolves to North Garden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 North Garden Average
North Garden Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across North Garden
- ●One soil character for all of North Garden
- ●Frost dates read at North Garden's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Garden's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Garden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Garden, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Garden averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Garden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Garden average
How we know this about North Garden
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 North Garden’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 North Garden
When does frost risk typically end in North Garden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Garden 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 North Garden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Garden typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Garden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Garden sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 31, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Garden?
The federal record around North Garden is a meaningful one — 322 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (232), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 North Garden?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Garden's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Garden'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 North Garden’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Garden's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,812 acres it covers and 322 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Garden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Garden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 14 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 322 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Garden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Garden's boundary and the 1,812 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Garden's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Gardenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Garden's 1,812 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Albemarle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Albemarle 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 Albemarle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Garden's 1,812 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Garden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,812 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 North Garden-wide figureread your own land →