Stony Creek Mills, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Stony Creek Mills, 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 Creek Mills 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 Creek Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stony Creek Mills — the short answer
Stony Creek Mills, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 408 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 408 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 Stony Creek Mills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stony Creek Mills's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stony Creek Mills
Each reading below is measured for Stony Creek Mills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStony Creek Mills runs about 216 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 Creek Mills 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 Stony Creek Mills is in
Stony Creek Mills sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Stony Creek Mills's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Berks County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Stony Creek Mills
Every plant below cleared Stony Creek Mills's own zone 7a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stony Creek Mills?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Stony Creek Mills
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Stony Creek Mills, first recorded 2016. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stony Creek Mills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stony Creek Mills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EXETER SUPPLY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ESTERLY CONTRACTING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BOSCOVS DISTR CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MINUTEMAN PRINTING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ANTIETAM JR SR HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- YODERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MT PENN BORO MUNI AUTHPFAS · 0.8 mi
- PAW GLEN ALSACE DIVPFAS · 0.8 mi
- MOBIL OIL 16 EFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SCHLEGEL PARK SWIMMING POOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TRINITY LEARNING CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ANTIETAM VALLEY MUNI AUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stony Creek Mills'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 Creek Mills.
Total Sites
1,517
within ~10 miles of Stony Creek Mills
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
16 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stony Creek Mills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stony Creek Mills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stony Creek Mills, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Stony Creek Mills. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Stony Creek Mills
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 Creek Mills average
Your land is one point inside Stony Creek Mills
Everything above resolves to Stony Creek Mills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 408 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 Creek Mills Average
Stony Creek Mills Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Stony Creek Mills
- ●One soil character for all of Stony Creek Mills
- ●Frost dates read at Stony Creek Mills's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stony Creek Mills's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stony Creek Mills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stony Creek Mills, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stony Creek Mills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stony Creek Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stony Creek Mills average
How we know this about Stony Creek Mills
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 Creek Mills’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 Creek Mills
When does frost risk typically end in Stony Creek Mills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stony Creek Mills typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Stony Creek Mills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stony Creek Mills typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stony Creek Mills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stony Creek Mills sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 23, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stony Creek Mills?
The federal record around Stony Creek Mills runs heavier than most — 1,517 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (825), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Stony Creek Mills?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stony Creek Mills's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stony Creek Mills'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 Creek Mills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stony Creek Mills's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 408 acres it covers and 1,517 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stony Creek Mills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stony Creek Mills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 6 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,517 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stony Creek Mills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stony Creek Mills's boundary and the 408 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Stony Creek Mills sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Stony Creek Millslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stony Creek Mills's 408 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berks County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berks County
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Berks County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stony Creek Mills's 408 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stony Creek Mills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 408 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Creek Mills-wide figureread your own land →
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