Strasburg, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Strasburg, 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 Strasburg 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 Strasburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Strasburg — the short answer
Strasburg, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Strasburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Strasburg's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Strasburg
Each reading below is measured for Strasburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStrasburg runs about 216 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
MeasuredStrasburg 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 Strasburg is in
Strasburg sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Strasburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shenandoah County.
What Grows in Strasburg
Every plant below cleared Strasburg's own zone 7a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Strasburg?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Strasburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 0 miles from Strasburg, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Strasburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Strasburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RS Equipment Fleet ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WALGREENS STORE #17308Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION LLC - STRASBURG COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Holtman Express - StrasburgUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Strasburg 7-11 tanks472 LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- STRASBURG B PUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- STRASBURG SELF SERVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RENANCO, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MILLERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ARNOLD HARMON RUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- OLD FORD DEALERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Strasburg'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 Strasburg.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Strasburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Strasburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Strasburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Strasburg — Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (151 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Strasburg
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 Strasburg average
Your land is one point inside Strasburg
Everything above resolves to Strasburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Strasburg Average
Strasburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Strasburg
- ●One soil character for all of Strasburg
- ●Frost dates read at Strasburg's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Strasburg's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Strasburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Strasburg, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Strasburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Strasburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Strasburg average
How we know this about Strasburg
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 Strasburg’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 Strasburg
When does frost risk typically end in Strasburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Strasburg typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Strasburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Strasburg typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Strasburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Strasburg sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 20, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Strasburg?
The federal record around Strasburg is a meaningful one — 222 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (151), 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 Strasburg?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Strasburg's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Strasburg'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 Strasburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Strasburg's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,605 acres it covers and 222 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Strasburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Strasburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 3 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 222 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Strasburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Strasburg's boundary and the 2,605 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Strasburg's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Strasburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Strasburg's 2,605 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shenandoah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shenandoah 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 Shenandoah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Strasburg's 2,605 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Strasburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,605 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 Strasburg-wide figureread your own land →