Pearisburg, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pearisburg, 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 Pearisburg 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 Pearisburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pearisburg — the short answer
Pearisburg, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- 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 7a is Pearisburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pearisburg's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pearisburg
Each reading below is measured for Pearisburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPearisburg runs about 203 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
MeasuredPearisburg 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 Pearisburg is in
Pearisburg sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pearisburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Giles County.
What Grows in Pearisburg
Every plant below cleared Pearisburg's own zone 7a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pearisburg?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Pearisburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Pearisburg, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pearisburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pearisburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ho-Bo Trucking CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GILES CO SANITARY LANDFILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PEARISBURG VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPTARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Star MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GILES MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Former 7 Day MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BELL ATLANTICUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MEADOW GOLD DAIRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Former Rushbrooke CleanersUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- VDOT PEARISBURG AREA HQBrownfields · 2300 ft
- GARYS AUTO SPECIALTIESBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Giles County Parking LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pearisburg'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 Pearisburg.
Total Sites
153
within ~10 miles of Pearisburg
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pearisburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pearisburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pearisburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pearisburg — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (106 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pearisburg
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 Pearisburg average
Your land is one point inside Pearisburg
Everything above resolves to Pearisburg 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 Pearisburg Average
Pearisburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pearisburg
- ●One soil character for all of Pearisburg
- ●Frost dates read at Pearisburg's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pearisburg's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pearisburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pearisburg, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pearisburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pearisburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pearisburg average
How we know this about Pearisburg
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 Pearisburg’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 Pearisburg
When does frost risk typically end in Pearisburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pearisburg typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Pearisburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pearisburg typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pearisburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pearisburg sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 12, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pearisburg?
The federal record around Pearisburg is a meaningful one — 153 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (106), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Pearisburg?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pearisburg's scale — its 7a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pearisburg'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 Pearisburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pearisburg's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,043 acres it covers and 153 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pearisburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pearisburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 26 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 153 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pearisburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pearisburg's boundary and the 2,043 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pearisburg's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pearisburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pearisburg's 2,043 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Giles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Giles 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 Giles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pearisburg's 2,043 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pearisburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,043 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Pearisburg-wide figureread your own land →
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