Ravensworth, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ravensworth, 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 Ravensworth 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 Ravensworth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ravensworth — the short answer
Ravensworth, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 578 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 578 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 Ravensworth's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ravensworth's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ravensworth
Each reading below is measured for Ravensworth itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRavensworth runs about 235 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
MeasuredRavensworth 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 Ravensworth is in
Ravensworth sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ravensworth's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fairfax County.
What Grows in Ravensworth
Every plant below cleared Ravensworth's own zone 7b and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ravensworth?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 Ravensworth
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Ravensworth, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ravensworth
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ravensworth. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RFI ASSOCIATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- EROLS VCR AND TVUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- AE&G LANDSCAPE SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CAPITAL CAR CARE INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CAPITAL CAR CARE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Canada Dry Potomac CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SHENDOAH PRIDE DAIRYToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- Shenadoah s Pride Limited Liability CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HO-WAR PLUMBING CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Paxton Van Lines IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WILLIAM BYRD PRESS-DATA IMAGING GRPBrownfields · 2300 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEBrownfields · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ravensworth'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 Ravensworth.
Total Sites
3,062
within ~10 miles of Ravensworth
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ravensworth
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ravensworth
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Ravensworth
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 Ravensworth average
Your land is one point inside Ravensworth
Everything above resolves to Ravensworth as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 578 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 Ravensworth Average
Ravensworth Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ravensworth
- ●One soil character for all of Ravensworth
- ●Frost dates read at Ravensworth's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ravensworth's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ravensworth
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ravensworth, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ravensworth averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ravensworth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ravensworth average
How we know this about Ravensworth
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 Ravensworth’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 Ravensworth
When does frost risk typically end in Ravensworth?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ravensworth typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Ravensworth?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ravensworth typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ravensworth?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ravensworth sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 30, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ravensworth?
The federal record around Ravensworth is a meaningful one — 3,062 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,704), 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 Ravensworth?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ravensworth's scale — its 7b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ravensworth'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 Ravensworth’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ravensworth's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 578 acres it covers and 3,062 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ravensworth's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ravensworth's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 13 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,062 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ravensworth, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ravensworth's boundary and the 578 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ravensworth's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ravensworthlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ravensworth's 578 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairfax 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 Fairfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ravensworth's 578 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ravensworth you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 578 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 Ravensworth-wide figureread your own land →