Timberville, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Timberville, 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 Timberville 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 Timberville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Timberville — the short answer
Timberville, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 855 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 855 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 Timberville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Timberville's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Timberville
Each reading below is measured for Timberville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTimberville runs about 208 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
MeasuredTimberville 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 Timberville is in
Timberville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Timberville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rockingham County.
What Grows in Timberville
Every plant below cleared Timberville's own zone 7a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Timberville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Timberville
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Timberville, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Timberville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Timberville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROADCAPS POULTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- HFTB BYRDUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- GEORGE ABBOTTUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- PAUL MAUZY LITTER CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Valley's Exxon #36Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- TIMBERVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- FARMERS & MERCHANTS BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- RIVERSIDE TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WHITS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #6952Brownfields · 1200 ft
- WALGREENS #17375Brownfields · 1300 ft
- National Fruit Product Company IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Timberville'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 Timberville.
Total Sites
203
within ~10 miles of Timberville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Timberville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Timberville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Timberville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Timberville — Mining (27 sites) and CAFO (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Timberville
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 Timberville average
Your land is one point inside Timberville
Everything above resolves to Timberville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 855 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 Timberville Average
Timberville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Timberville
- ●One soil character for all of Timberville
- ●Frost dates read at Timberville's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Timberville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Timberville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Timberville, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Timberville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Timberville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Timberville average
How we know this about Timberville
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 Timberville’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 Timberville
When does frost risk typically end in Timberville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Timberville typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Timberville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Timberville typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Timberville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Timberville sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 16, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Timberville?
The federal record around Timberville is a meaningful one — 203 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (134), 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 Timberville?
From about Sep 30 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 Oct 30 (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 Oct 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Timberville's scale — its 7a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Timberville'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 Timberville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Timberville's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 855 acres it covers and 203 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Timberville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Timberville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 30 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 203 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Timberville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Timberville's boundary and the 855 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Timberville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Timbervillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Timberville's 855 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rockingham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rockingham 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 Rockingham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Timberville's 855 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Timberville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 855 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 Timberville-wide figureread your own land →