Wolf Trap, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wolf Trap, 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 Wolf Trap 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 Wolf Trap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wolf Trap — the short answer
Wolf Trap, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Wolf Trap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wolf Trap's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wolf Trap
Each reading below is measured for Wolf Trap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWolf Trap runs about 227 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
MeasuredWolf Trap 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 Wolf Trap is in
Wolf Trap sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wolf Trap's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fairfax County is mostly Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Wolf Trap
Every plant below cleared Wolf Trap's own zone 7b and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wolf Trap?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Wolf Trap
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Wolf Trap, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wolf Trap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wolf Trap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VIENNA, TOWN OFPFAS · 2100 ft
- DULLES CORRIDOR METRORAIL PROJECTBrownfields · 2400 ft
- WOLFTRAP FARM PARKBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing ArUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JUNIOR EQUITATION SCHOOL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FREEMAN RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- E E LYONS CONSTRUCTION COMPANY IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- COVANCE LABS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HUNTER MILL COUNTRY DAY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Town & Country School of ViennaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BENNETTS NURSERY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wolf Trap'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 Wolf Trap.
Total Sites
2,358
within ~10 miles of Wolf Trap
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wolf Trap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wolf Trap
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Wolf Trap
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 Wolf Trap average
Your land is one point inside Wolf Trap
Everything above resolves to Wolf Trap as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Wolf Trap Average
Wolf Trap Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Wolf Trap
- ●One soil character for all of Wolf Trap
- ●Frost dates read at Wolf Trap's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wolf Trap's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wolf Trap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wolf Trap, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wolf Trap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wolf Trap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wolf Trap average
How we know this about Wolf Trap
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 Wolf Trap’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 Wolf Trap
When does frost risk typically end in Wolf Trap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wolf Trap typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Wolf Trap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wolf Trap typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wolf Trap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wolf Trap sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 28, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wolf Trap?
The federal record around Wolf Trap is a meaningful one — 2,358 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,220), the nearest PFAS record about 0.4 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 Wolf Trap?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wolf Trap's scale — its 7b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wolf Trap'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 Wolf Trap’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wolf Trap's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,260 acres it covers and 2,358 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wolf Trap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wolf Trap's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 11 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,358 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wolf Trap, the closest PFAS record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wolf Trap's boundary and the 6,260 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Wolf Trap sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wolf Traplydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wolf Trap's 6,260 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairfax 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 Fairfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wolf Trap's 6,260 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wolf Trap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,260 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.4 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 Wolf Trap-wide figureread your own land →