North Star, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in North Star, 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 North Star 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 North Star — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
North Star — the short answer
North Star, Delaware: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 North Star's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Star's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Star
Each reading below is measured for North Star itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Star 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
MeasuredNorth Star 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 North Star is in
North Star sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Star's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: New Castle County is mostly Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in North Star
Every plant below cleared North Star's own zone 7a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Star?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 North Star
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from North Star, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Star
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Star. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Whitemans Garage DempseysUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #10376Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- CH 4026Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- CH 2663Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- WILKINSON FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Lynn Naudain PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Limestone Road GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Pike Creek LibertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MA Zeccola & SonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WALGREENS #11080Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- Tweeds Tavern/Valley Road ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Green Tree FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Star'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 North Star.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Star
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Star
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 North Star
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 North Star average
Your land is one point inside North Star
Everything above resolves to North Star as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 North Star Average
North Star Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across North Star
- ●One soil character for all of North Star
- ●Frost dates read at North Star's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Star's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Star
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Star, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Star averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Star — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Star average
How we know this about North Star
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 North Star’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 North Star
When does frost risk typically end in North Star?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Star typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in North Star?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Star typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Star?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Star sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 26, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Star?
The federal record around North Star runs heavier than most — 2,495 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,140), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in North Star?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Star's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Star'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 North Star’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Star's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,353 acres it covers and 2,495 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Star's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Star's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 9 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,495 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Star, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Star's boundary and the 4,353 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- North Star sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Starlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Star's 4,353 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom New Castle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom New Castle County
- The growing challenges every Delaware grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Delaware
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom New Castle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Star's 4,353 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Star you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,353 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 North Star-wide figureread your own land →