Pike Creek Valley, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Pike Creek Valley, 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 Pike Creek Valley 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 Pike Creek Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pike Creek Valley — the short answer
Pike Creek Valley, Delaware: USDA zone 7b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- 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 Pike Creek Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pike Creek Valley's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pike Creek Valley
Each reading below is measured for Pike Creek Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPike Creek Valley runs about 226 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
MeasuredPike Creek Valley 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 Pike Creek Valley is in
Pike Creek Valley sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pike Creek Valley'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 Pike Creek Valley
Every plant below cleared Pike Creek Valley's own zone 7b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pike Creek Valley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Pike Creek Valley
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Pike Creek Valley, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pike Creek Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pike Creek Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Woodlea Elderly ApartmentsUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- NEW LINDEN HILL CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SKYLINE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL - 2900 SKYLINE DR, WILMINGTONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Tom Rowlan PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LITTLES GARAGEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Littles GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- THOMPSONS CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- THOMPSON CLEANERS INC. - LIMESTONE RDBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- RITE AID #11187Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- Estate of Virginia S duPontUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RITE AID #11180Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- K Mart Pike Creek Shopping CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pike Creek Valley'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 Pike Creek Valley.
Total Sites
2,957
within ~10 miles of Pike Creek Valley
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
32 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pike Creek Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pike Creek Valley
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 Pike Creek Valley
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 Pike Creek Valley average
Your land is one point inside Pike Creek Valley
Everything above resolves to Pike Creek Valley 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 Pike Creek Valley Average
Pike Creek Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Pike Creek Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Pike Creek Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Pike Creek Valley's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pike Creek Valley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pike Creek Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pike Creek Valley, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pike Creek Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pike Creek Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pike Creek Valley average
How we know this about Pike Creek Valley
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 Pike Creek Valley’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 Pike Creek Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Pike Creek Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pike Creek Valley 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 Pike Creek Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pike Creek Valley typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pike Creek Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pike Creek Valley sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 27, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pike Creek Valley?
The federal record around Pike Creek Valley runs heavier than most — 2,957 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,401), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Pike Creek Valley?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pike Creek Valley's scale — its 7b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pike Creek Valley'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 Pike Creek Valley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pike Creek Valley's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,837 acres it covers and 2,957 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pike Creek Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pike Creek Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 10 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,957 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pike Creek Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pike Creek Valley's boundary and the 1,837 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pike Creek Valley sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pike Creek Valleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pike Creek Valley's 1,837 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 Pike Creek Valley's 1,837 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pike Creek Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,837 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Pike Creek Valley-wide figureread your own land →