Wytheville, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wytheville, 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 Wytheville 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 Wytheville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wytheville — the short answer
Wytheville, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Wytheville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wytheville's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wytheville
Each reading below is measured for Wytheville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWytheville runs about 190 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWytheville 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 Wytheville is in
Wytheville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wytheville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wythe County.
What Grows in Wytheville
Every plant below cleared Wytheville's own zone 7a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wytheville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Wytheville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Wytheville, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wytheville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wytheville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- H V ETTER CONSTRUCTION CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- SMITH OIL CORP-BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Virginia Heights Travel StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Wythe Tire and MufflerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WYTHE COUNTY JAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GRAHAMS FORGE FOODETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ZELMA A. JONESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WYTHE COUNTY LANDFILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- STRICKLAND GRADINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- COLEMANS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SHEFFEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FOXFIRE DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wytheville'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 Wytheville.
Total Sites
207
within ~10 miles of Wytheville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wytheville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wytheville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wytheville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 134 sites within ~10 miles of Wytheville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Wytheville
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 Wytheville average
Your land is one point inside Wytheville
Everything above resolves to Wytheville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Wytheville Average
Wytheville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Wytheville
- ●One soil character for all of Wytheville
- ●Frost dates read at Wytheville's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wytheville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wytheville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wytheville, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wytheville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wytheville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wytheville average
How we know this about Wytheville
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 Wytheville’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 Wytheville
When does frost risk typically end in Wytheville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wytheville typically lands around Apr 16, 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 May 7.
When is the first frost in Wytheville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wytheville typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wytheville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wytheville sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 9, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wytheville?
The federal record around Wytheville is a meaningful one — 207 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (134), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Wytheville?
From about Sep 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 Oct 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wytheville's scale — its 7a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wytheville'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 Wytheville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wytheville's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,273 acres it covers and 207 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wytheville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wytheville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 23 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 207 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wytheville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wytheville's boundary and the 9,273 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wytheville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wythevillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wytheville's 9,273 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wythe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wythe 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 Wythe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wytheville's 9,273 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wytheville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,273 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 Wytheville-wide figureread your own land →