Stony Point, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Stony Point, 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 Stony Point 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 Stony Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stony Point — the short answer
Stony Point, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- 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
- ~234
- 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 8a is Stony Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stony Point's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stony Point
Each reading below is measured for Stony Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStony Point runs about 234 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
MeasuredStony Point sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Stony Point is in
Stony Point sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Stony Point's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alexander County.
What Grows in Stony Point
Every plant below cleared Stony Point's own zone 8a and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stony Point?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Stony Point
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Stony Point, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stony Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stony Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLD WADE BROWNING SER. STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CLOTH TAPE PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- COMB'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- STONY POINT TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- STONY POINT CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SHURTAPE TECHNOLOGIES INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SHURTAPE TECHNOLOGIES INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- HICKORY SPRINGS MANUFACTURING COToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- LITTLE'S SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MARKET BASKET 16Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BESTWAY SOUTH, INC.Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- BESTWAY SOUTH, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stony Point'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 Stony Point.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stony Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stony Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stony Point, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Stony Point — Toxics Release Inventory (37 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (210 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Stony Point
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 Stony Point average
Your land is one point inside Stony Point
Everything above resolves to Stony Point 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 Stony Point Average
Stony Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Stony Point
- ●One soil character for all of Stony Point
- ●Frost dates read at Stony Point's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stony Point's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stony Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stony Point, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stony Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stony Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stony Point average
How we know this about Stony Point
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 Stony Point’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 Stony Point
When does frost risk typically end in Stony Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stony Point typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Stony Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stony Point 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 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stony Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stony Point sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 27, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stony Point?
The federal record around Stony Point is a meaningful one — 310 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (210), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Stony Point?
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 Stony Point's scale — its 8a band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stony Point'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 Stony Point’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stony Point's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,907 acres it covers and 310 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stony Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stony Point's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 10 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 310 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stony Point, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stony Point's boundary and the 1,907 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stony Point's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Stony Pointlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stony Point's 1,907 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alexander County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alexander 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 Alexander County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stony Point's 1,907 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stony Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,907 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Stony Point-wide figureread your own land →
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