Ridge and Valley

The Ridge and Valley is the long corrugated band of parallel ridges and limestone valleys running from Pennsylvania down through Virginia into Tennessee, including Harrisburg, Roanoke, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. Valley floors hold deep fertile soil while the ridges above them are thin and rocky, so conditions can change sharply within a single property. Natives like heart-leaf foamflower, bigleaf magnolia, and whorled tickseed cover that spread from shaded slope to open valley floor.

Conditions: Limestone valley soils alternating with thin rocky ridges, 40–50 inches of rain, cold winters and warm humid summers.

Cities and areas: Harrisburg, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Roanoke, Hagerstown, Blacksburg.