Woodlake, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Woodlake, 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 Woodlake 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 Woodlake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Woodlake — the short answer
Woodlake, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- 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 Woodlake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodlake's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woodlake
Each reading below is measured for Woodlake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoodlake runs about 224 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
MeasuredWoodlake 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 Woodlake is in
Woodlake sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Woodlake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chesterfield County.
What Grows in Woodlake
Every plant below cleared Woodlake's own zone 7b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woodlake?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Woodlake
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Woodlake, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Woodlake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woodlake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHESTERFIELD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT (CLOVER HILL E S)Brownfields · 1000 ft
- Woodlake Pump StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Curtis SawtelleUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Bright Hope Pump StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CHESTERFIELD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT (WOOLRIDGE ELEM SCHOOL)Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY #729Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- Southshore ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WAWA FOOD MARKET #657Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- Wawa Food Market 657Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #4476Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- WALGREENS STORE #6698Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- JENKINS MINI-MART #8Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodlake'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 Woodlake.
Total Sites
492
within ~10 miles of Woodlake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woodlake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woodlake
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Woodlake
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 Woodlake average
Your land is one point inside Woodlake
Everything above resolves to Woodlake 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 Woodlake Average
Woodlake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Woodlake
- ●One soil character for all of Woodlake
- ●Frost dates read at Woodlake's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodlake's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woodlake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodlake, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodlake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodlake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodlake average
How we know this about Woodlake
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 Woodlake’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 Woodlake
When does frost risk typically end in Woodlake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodlake typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Woodlake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woodlake typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woodlake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodlake sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 24, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woodlake?
The federal record around Woodlake is a meaningful one — 492 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (273), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Woodlake?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Woodlake's scale — its 7b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodlake'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 Woodlake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Woodlake's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,550 acres it covers and 492 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodlake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woodlake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 7 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 492 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woodlake, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woodlake's boundary and the 1,550 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Woodlake's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Woodlakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woodlake's 1,550 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chesterfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chesterfield 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 Chesterfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woodlake's 1,550 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woodlake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,550 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Woodlake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Growing region
Nearby growing guides