Penhook, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Penhook, 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 Penhook 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 Penhook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Penhook — the short answer
Penhook, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Penhook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Penhook's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Penhook
Each reading below is measured for Penhook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPenhook runs about 221 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
MeasuredPenhook 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 Penhook is in
Penhook sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Penhook's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Penhook
Every plant below cleared Penhook's own zone 7b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Penhook?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Penhook
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Penhook, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Penhook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Penhook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Penhook Minute MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Carls PlaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Palmers MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Penhook Boat DockUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Frenchie & Ruths Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Lakeside MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- G&N MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Whistle StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Lumpkins MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- APCO - PENNHALL TRAINING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Smith Mountain Dock and LodgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Sprint/Union Hall Central OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Penhook'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 Penhook.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Penhook
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Penhook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Penhook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Penhook, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 80 sites within ~10 miles of Penhook. 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 Penhook
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 Penhook average
Your land is one point inside Penhook
Everything above resolves to Penhook as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Penhook Average
Penhook Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Penhook
- ●One soil character for all of Penhook
- ●Frost dates read at Penhook's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Penhook's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Penhook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Penhook, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Penhook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Penhook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Penhook average
How we know this about Penhook
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 Penhook’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 Penhook
When does frost risk typically end in Penhook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Penhook typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Penhook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Penhook typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Penhook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Penhook sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 24, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Penhook?
The federal record around Penhook is a meaningful one — 91 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Penhook?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Penhook's scale — its 7b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Penhook'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 Penhook’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Penhook's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,156 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Penhook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Penhook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 7 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Penhook, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Penhook's boundary and the 7,156 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Penhook's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Penhooklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Penhook's 7,156 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Penhook's 7,156 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Penhook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,156 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Penhook-wide figureread your own land →
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