Rhoadesville, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rhoadesville, 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 Rhoadesville 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 Rhoadesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rhoadesville — the short answer
Rhoadesville, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 662 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- 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
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 662 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 Rhoadesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rhoadesville's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rhoadesville
Each reading below is measured for Rhoadesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRhoadesville runs about 225 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
MeasuredRhoadesville 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 Rhoadesville is in
Rhoadesville sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rhoadesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Rhoadesville
Every plant below cleared Rhoadesville's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rhoadesville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (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 Rhoadesville
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Rhoadesville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rhoadesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rhoadesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEN'S UPHOLSTERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- EDWARDS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DUNAWAYS HEATING & COOLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Corner Market IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Shorts Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- UNIONVILLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- AEROJET ROCKETDYNE, INC. - ORANGE COUNTY FACILITYBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- BELL ATLANTICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- LIGHTFOOT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- AT&T L246320Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Wilson Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- PORTRAN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rhoadesville'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 Rhoadesville.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Rhoadesville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rhoadesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rhoadesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rhoadesville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rhoadesville — Mining (9 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (69 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Rhoadesville
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 Rhoadesville average
Your land is one point inside Rhoadesville
Everything above resolves to Rhoadesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 662 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 Rhoadesville Average
Rhoadesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Rhoadesville
- ●One soil character for all of Rhoadesville
- ●Frost dates read at Rhoadesville's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rhoadesville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rhoadesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rhoadesville, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rhoadesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rhoadesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rhoadesville average
How we know this about Rhoadesville
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 Rhoadesville’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 Rhoadesville
When does frost risk typically end in Rhoadesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rhoadesville typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Rhoadesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rhoadesville 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 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rhoadesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rhoadesville sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 24, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rhoadesville?
The federal record around Rhoadesville is a meaningful one — 103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Rhoadesville?
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 Rhoadesville's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rhoadesville'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 Rhoadesville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rhoadesville's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 662 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rhoadesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rhoadesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 7 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rhoadesville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rhoadesville's boundary and the 662 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rhoadesville's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Rhoadesvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rhoadesville's 662 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange 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 Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rhoadesville's 662 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rhoadesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 662 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 Rhoadesville-wide figureread your own land →