Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Spotsylvania Courthouse, 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 Spotsylvania Courthouse 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 Spotsylvania Courthouse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Spotsylvania Courthouse — the short answer
Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 7K 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
- 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 7a is Spotsylvania Courthouse's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spotsylvania Courthouse's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spotsylvania Courthouse
Each reading below is measured for Spotsylvania Courthouse itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpotsylvania Courthouse 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
MeasuredSpotsylvania Courthouse 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 Spotsylvania Courthouse is in
Spotsylvania Courthouse sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spotsylvania Courthouse's own centroid rather than borrowed from Spotsylvania County.
What Grows in Spotsylvania Courthouse
Every plant below cleared Spotsylvania Courthouse'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 Spotsylvania Courthouse?
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 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 Spotsylvania Courthouse
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Spotsylvania Courthouse, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Spotsylvania Courthouse
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spotsylvania Courthouse. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pendletons Grocery StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- FAS MART INC STORE #23Brownfields · 550 ft
- EXXON #20726Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Bell Atlantic SpotsylvaniaUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SPOTSYLVANIA MIDDLE SCHOOL PARKING LOTBrownfields · 1000 ft
- SPOTSYLAVANIA SCHOOL MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FACILITIES MANAGEMENT - SCCOBrownfields · 1300 ft
- 7-ELEVEN #20752Brownfields · 1600 ft
- SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD/MAINTENANCE COMPLEXBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SPOTSYLVANIA SCHOOL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 7 Eleven Store 20752Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- RESCUE SQUAD #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spotsylvania Courthouse'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 Spotsylvania Courthouse.
Total Sites
545
within ~10 miles of Spotsylvania Courthouse
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spotsylvania Courthouse
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spotsylvania Courthouse
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 Spotsylvania Courthouse
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 Spotsylvania Courthouse average
Your land is one point inside Spotsylvania Courthouse
Everything above resolves to Spotsylvania Courthouse 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 Spotsylvania Courthouse Average
Spotsylvania Courthouse Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Spotsylvania Courthouse
- ●One soil character for all of Spotsylvania Courthouse
- ●Frost dates read at Spotsylvania Courthouse's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spotsylvania Courthouse's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spotsylvania Courthouse
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spotsylvania Courthouse averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spotsylvania Courthouse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spotsylvania Courthouse average
How we know this about Spotsylvania Courthouse
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 Spotsylvania Courthouse’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 Spotsylvania Courthouse
When does frost risk typically end in Spotsylvania Courthouse?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spotsylvania Courthouse 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 Spotsylvania Courthouse?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spotsylvania Courthouse 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 Spotsylvania Courthouse?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spotsylvania Courthouse 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 Spotsylvania Courthouse?
The federal record around Spotsylvania Courthouse is a meaningful one — 545 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (327), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Spotsylvania Courthouse?
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 Spotsylvania Courthouse's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spotsylvania Courthouse'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 Spotsylvania Courthouse’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Spotsylvania Courthouse's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,868 acres it covers and 545 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spotsylvania Courthouse's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spotsylvania Courthouse's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 7 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 545 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spotsylvania Courthouse, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spotsylvania Courthouse's boundary and the 6,868 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 Spotsylvania Courthouse's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Spotsylvania Courthouselydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spotsylvania Courthouse's 6,868 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Spotsylvania County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Spotsylvania 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 Spotsylvania County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spotsylvania Courthouse's 6,868 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spotsylvania Courthouse you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,868 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Spotsylvania Courthouse-wide figureread your own land →