Pennington Gap, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pennington Gap, 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 Pennington Gap 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 Pennington Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pennington Gap — the short answer
Pennington Gap, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- 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 7a is Pennington Gap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pennington Gap's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pennington Gap
Each reading below is measured for Pennington Gap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPennington Gap runs about 209 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
MeasuredPennington Gap 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 Pennington Gap is in
Pennington Gap sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pennington Gap's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lee County.
What Grows in Pennington Gap
Every plant below cleared Pennington Gap's own zone 7a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pennington Gap?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Pennington Gap
Survey cells within 31 miles of Pennington Gap checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 46 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pennington Gap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pennington Gap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CSX Seaboard System RailroadUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Fas Mart 408Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- COUNTRY BOYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WAND DALTON TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Lee Oil Company Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Lee Y. Tan Former Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FORMER DORIS SMITH PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Stone Creek Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Lee Regional Medical CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Parsons 66 Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DAVIS TRANSMISSIONBrownfields · 2100 ft
- MOUNTAIN MACHINE & MOTORBrownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pennington Gap'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 Pennington Gap.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Pennington Gap
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pennington Gap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pennington Gap
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pennington Gap, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 90 sites within ~10 miles of Pennington Gap. 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 Pennington Gap
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 Pennington Gap average
Your land is one point inside Pennington Gap
Everything above resolves to Pennington Gap 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 Pennington Gap Average
Pennington Gap Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pennington Gap
- ●One soil character for all of Pennington Gap
- ●Frost dates read at Pennington Gap's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pennington Gap's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pennington Gap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pennington Gap, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pennington Gap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pennington Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pennington Gap average
How we know this about Pennington Gap
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 Pennington Gap’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 Pennington Gap
When does frost risk typically end in Pennington Gap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pennington Gap typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Pennington Gap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pennington Gap typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pennington Gap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pennington Gap sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 16, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pennington Gap?
The federal record around Pennington Gap shows 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Pennington Gap?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pennington Gap's scale — its 7a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pennington Gap'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 Pennington Gap’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pennington Gap's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,068 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pennington Gap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pennington Gap's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 30 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pennington Gap, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pennington Gap's boundary and the 1,068 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pennington Gap's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Pennington Gap checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pennington Gap's 1,068 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lee 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 Lee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pennington Gap's 1,068 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pennington Gap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,068 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 Pennington Gap-wide figureread your own land →
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