Pound, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Pound, 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 Pound 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 Pound — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pound — the short answer
Pound, Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- 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
- ~202
- 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 6b is Pound's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pound's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pound
Each reading below is measured for Pound itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPound runs about 202 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
MeasuredPound sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Pound is in
Pound sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pound's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wise County.
What Grows in Pound
Every plant below cleared Pound's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pound?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Pound
Survey cells within 31 miles of Pound checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 43 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pound
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pound. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wise Auto SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- APPCO 49Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Wildcat 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SLEMPS STORE & CORA SLEMP RESIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- POUND 66 SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- North Fork of Pound LakeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MCFALL FORK STRIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Ambrose Branch Coal CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BELL ATLANTICUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Town of PoundUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Fas Mart 412Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- INDIAN CREEK SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pound'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 Pound.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pound
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pound
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pound, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pound — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (91 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pound
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 Pound average
Your land is one point inside Pound
Everything above resolves to Pound 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 Pound Average
Pound Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pound
- ●One soil character for all of Pound
- ●Frost dates read at Pound's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pound's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pound
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pound, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pound averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pound — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pound average
How we know this about Pound
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 Pound’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 Pound
When does frost risk typically end in Pound?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pound typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Pound?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pound 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 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pound?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pound sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 13, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pound?
The federal record around Pound is a meaningful one — 230 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (128), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Pound?
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 Pound's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pound'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 Pound’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pound's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,667 acres it covers and 230 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pound's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pound's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 27 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 230 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pound, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pound's boundary and the 1,667 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pound's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Pound 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 Pound's 1,667 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wise County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wise 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 Wise County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pound's 1,667 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pound you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,667 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Pound-wide figureread your own land →
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