Seven Devils, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Seven Devils, 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 Seven Devils 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 Seven Devils — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Seven Devils — the short answer
Seven Devils, North Carolina: USDA zone 6b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6b is Seven Devils's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Seven Devils's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Seven Devils
Each reading below is measured for Seven Devils itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSeven Devils 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
MeasuredSeven Devils sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Seven Devils is in
Seven Devils sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Seven Devils's own centroid rather than borrowed from Watauga County.
What Grows in Seven Devils
Every plant below cleared Seven Devils's own zone 6b and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Seven Devils?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Seven Devils
Survey cells within 31 miles of Seven Devils checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 34 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Seven Devils
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Seven Devils. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WT-127 NR SEVEN DEVILS, NC PHYLLITENitrate · 0.7 mi
- WALGREENS 17015Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- SPEEDWAY #7925Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MAINTENANCE BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Copper ProspectMining · 1.5 mi
- FOSCOE FOOD BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LOWE'S OF BANNER ELKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SCOTCHMAN 089Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- THE VILLAGE OF SUGAR MTN PW DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- ELK RIVER DEVELOPMENT CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- FOSCOE COUNTRY CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- AUS-BEN MFG INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Seven Devils'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 Seven Devils.
Total Sites
191
within ~10 miles of Seven Devils
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Seven Devils
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Seven Devils
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Seven Devils, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 151 sites within ~10 miles of Seven Devils. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Seven Devils
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 Seven Devils average
Your land is one point inside Seven Devils
Everything above resolves to Seven Devils as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Seven Devils Average
Seven Devils Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Seven Devils
- ●One soil character for all of Seven Devils
- ●Frost dates read at Seven Devils's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Seven Devils's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Seven Devils
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Seven Devils, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Seven Devils averages can't show:
We read public map data around Seven Devils — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Seven Devils average
How we know this about Seven Devils
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 Seven Devils’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 Seven Devils
When does frost risk typically end in Seven Devils?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Seven Devils typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Seven Devils?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Seven Devils typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Seven Devils?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Seven Devils sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 10, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Seven Devils?
The federal record around Seven Devils is a meaningful one — 191 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (151), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Seven Devils?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Seven Devils's scale — its 6b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Seven Devils'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 Seven Devils’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Seven Devils's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,399 acres it covers and 191 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Seven Devils's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Seven Devils's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 24 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 191 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Seven Devils, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Seven Devils's boundary and the 1,399 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Seven Devils's own centroid, the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Seven Devils checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Seven Devils's 1,399 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Watauga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Watauga County
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Watauga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Seven Devils's 1,399 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Seven Devils you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,399 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Seven Devils-wide figureread your own land →