Surry, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Surry, 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 Surry 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 Surry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Surry — the short answer
Surry, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 529 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 529 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 8a is Surry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Surry's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Surry
Each reading below is measured for Surry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSurry runs about 251 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
MeasuredSurry sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Surry is in
Surry sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Surry's own centroid rather than borrowed from Surry County.
What Grows in Surry
Every plant below cleared Surry's own zone 8a and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Surry?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Surry
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Surry, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Surry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Surry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Surry Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ROLFE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FARMERS UNITED INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 56F 2 SOW 039Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 56F 51Nitrate · 2600 ft
- S. WALLACE EDWARDS & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 7 Eleven 34313Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HOLDSWORTH GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SURRY EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 56F 49Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 56F 50Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 56F 47Nitrate · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Surry'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 Surry.
Total Sites
155
within ~10 miles of Surry
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Surry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Surry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Surry, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Surry. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Surry
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 Surry average
Your land is one point inside Surry
Everything above resolves to Surry as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 529 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 Surry Average
Surry Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Surry
- ●One soil character for all of Surry
- ●Frost dates read at Surry's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Surry's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Surry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Surry, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Surry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Surry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Surry average
How we know this about Surry
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 Surry’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 Surry
When does frost risk typically end in Surry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Surry typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Surry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Surry typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Surry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Surry sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 11, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Surry?
The federal record around Surry shows 155 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Surry?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Surry's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Surry'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 Surry’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Surry's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 529 acres it covers and 155 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Surry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Surry's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 25 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 155 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Surry, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Surry's boundary and the 529 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Surry's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Surrylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Surry's 529 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Surry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Surry 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 Surry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Surry's 529 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Surry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 529 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Surry-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaSurry sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides