Pantops, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Pantops, 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 Pantops 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 Pantops — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pantops — the short answer
Pantops, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- 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 7b is Pantops's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pantops's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pantops
Each reading below is measured for Pantops itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPantops runs about 227 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
MeasuredPantops 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 Pantops is in
Pantops sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pantops's own centroid rather than borrowed from Albemarle County.
What Grows in Pantops
Every plant below cleared Pantops's own zone 7b and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pantops?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Pantops
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Pantops, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pantops
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pantops. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CarMax 7290Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Freebridge Auto Sales IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- DENNIS ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Everyday 3543Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Fasmart 3542Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WILCO FOOD MART #752Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WALGREENS STORE #17626Brownfields · 1200 ft
- CHARLOTTESVILLE TOYOTA, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BROWN TOYOTABrownfields · 1600 ft
- JOHN LINKOUS VW/MAZDAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Charlottesville 7-11Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Battlefield Ford of CharlottesvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pantops'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 Pantops.
Total Sites
508
within ~10 miles of Pantops
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pantops
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pantops
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pantops, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 363 sites within ~10 miles of Pantops. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Pantops
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 Pantops average
Your land is one point inside Pantops
Everything above resolves to Pantops 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 Pantops Average
Pantops Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Pantops
- ●One soil character for all of Pantops
- ●Frost dates read at Pantops's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pantops's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pantops
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pantops, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pantops averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pantops — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pantops average
How we know this about Pantops
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 Pantops’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 Pantops
When does frost risk typically end in Pantops?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pantops typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Pantops?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pantops typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pantops?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pantops sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 26, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pantops?
The federal record around Pantops is a meaningful one — 508 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (363), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Pantops?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pantops's scale — its 7b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pantops'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 Pantops’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pantops's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,489 acres it covers and 508 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pantops's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pantops's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 9 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 508 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pantops, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pantops's boundary and the 1,489 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pantops's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pantopslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pantops's 1,489 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 Pantops's 1,489 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pantops you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,489 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Pantops-wide figureread your own land →