Tappahannock, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tappahannock, 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 Tappahannock 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 Tappahannock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tappahannock — the short answer
Tappahannock, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Tappahannock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tappahannock's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tappahannock
Each reading below is measured for Tappahannock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTappahannock runs about 247 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
MeasuredTappahannock 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 Tappahannock is in
Tappahannock sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tappahannock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Tappahannock
Every plant below cleared Tappahannock's own zone 7b and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tappahannock?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Tappahannock
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Tappahannock, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tappahannock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tappahannock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Elliott Tire and Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Raceway #981Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Tappahannock Fire DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Gwynnfield Maryfield FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Barton and Ware BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Hammond MufflerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Contracting Enterprises IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Eleanor Bundy Grocery StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Tappahannock Rescue SquadUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Mrs Stanley S MundyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Essex County LandfillUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Southern States Rappahannock Petroleum SvcUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tappahannock'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 Tappahannock.
Total Sites
176
within ~10 miles of Tappahannock
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tappahannock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tappahannock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tappahannock, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tappahannock — Underground Storage Tanks (128 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Tappahannock
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 Tappahannock average
Your land is one point inside Tappahannock
Everything above resolves to Tappahannock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Tappahannock Average
Tappahannock Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Tappahannock
- ●One soil character for all of Tappahannock
- ●Frost dates read at Tappahannock's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tappahannock's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tappahannock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tappahannock, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tappahannock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tappahannock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tappahannock average
How we know this about Tappahannock
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 Tappahannock’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 Tappahannock
When does frost risk typically end in Tappahannock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tappahannock typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Tappahannock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tappahannock typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tappahannock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tappahannock sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 8, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tappahannock?
The federal record around Tappahannock is a meaningful one — 176 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (128), 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 Tappahannock?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tappahannock's scale — its 7b band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tappahannock'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 Tappahannock’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Tappahannock's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,708 acres it covers and 176 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tappahannock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tappahannock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 22 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 176 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tappahannock, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tappahannock's boundary and the 1,708 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tappahannock's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Tappahannocklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tappahannock's 1,708 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Essex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Essex 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 Essex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tappahannock's 1,708 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tappahannock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,708 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 Tappahannock-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaTappahannock sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides