Pembroke, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Pembroke, 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 Pembroke 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 Pembroke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pembroke — the short answer
Pembroke, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 695 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 695 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 Pembroke's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pembroke's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pembroke
Each reading below is measured for Pembroke itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPembroke 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
MeasuredPembroke 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 Pembroke is in
Pembroke sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pembroke's own centroid rather than borrowed from Giles County.
What Grows in Pembroke
Every plant below cleared Pembroke'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 Pembroke?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Pembroke
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from Pembroke, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pembroke
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pembroke. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMITH ARCHIE PUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- HENDRICKSON WILLIAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- New River DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Tangent OutdoorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- KESLING AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- RIVER VALLEY AUTOBrownfields · 1300 ft
- MIDWAY CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WOODLAND MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MEDLEY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ALMETTA R. LUCASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Little Giant GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PEMBROKE MOTOR SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pembroke'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 Pembroke.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Pembroke
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pembroke
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pembroke
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pembroke, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 89 sites within ~10 miles of Pembroke. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Pembroke
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 Pembroke average
Your land is one point inside Pembroke
Everything above resolves to Pembroke as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 695 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 Pembroke Average
Pembroke Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pembroke
- ●One soil character for all of Pembroke
- ●Frost dates read at Pembroke's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pembroke's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pembroke
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pembroke, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pembroke averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pembroke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pembroke average
How we know this about Pembroke
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 Pembroke’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 Pembroke
When does frost risk typically end in Pembroke?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pembroke typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Pembroke?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pembroke typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pembroke?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pembroke sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 13, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pembroke?
The federal record around Pembroke shows 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pembroke?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pembroke's scale — its 7a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pembroke'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 Pembroke’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pembroke's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 695 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pembroke's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pembroke's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 27 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pembroke, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pembroke's boundary and the 695 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 Pembroke's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pembrokelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pembroke's 695 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 Pembroke's 695 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pembroke you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 695 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Pembroke-wide figureread your own land →
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