Big Stone Gap, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Big Stone Gap, 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 Big Stone Gap 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 Big Stone Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Big Stone Gap — the short answer
Big Stone Gap, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Big Stone Gap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Stone Gap's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Stone Gap
Each reading below is measured for Big Stone Gap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBig Stone Gap runs about 217 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
MeasuredBig Stone Gap 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 Big Stone Gap is in
Big Stone Gap sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Big Stone Gap's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Wise County is mostly Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Big Stone Gap
Every plant below cleared Big Stone Gap's own zone 7a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Big Stone Gap?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Big Stone Gap
Survey cells within 31 miles of Big Stone Gap checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Big Stone Gap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Stone Gap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pet Dairy Big Stone GapUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BELL ATLANTICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ROGERS CITGO TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Mini ET MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- COUGHLIN GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DOTSON CHEVY & OLDSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- DOTSON CHEV-OLDS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Powell Valley National Bank - Old Trail MotelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- TOWN OF BIG STONE GAPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FRALEYS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Seminary MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SHAWNEE SERVICE CENTER, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Big Stone Gap'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 Big Stone Gap.
Total Sites
148
within ~10 miles of Big Stone Gap
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Big Stone Gap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Stone Gap
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Big Stone Gap, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 119 sites within ~10 miles of Big Stone Gap. 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 Big Stone Gap
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 Big Stone Gap average
Your land is one point inside Big Stone Gap
Everything above resolves to Big Stone Gap as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Big Stone Gap Average
Big Stone Gap Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Big Stone Gap
- ●One soil character for all of Big Stone Gap
- ●Frost dates read at Big Stone Gap's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Stone Gap's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Stone Gap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Stone Gap, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Stone Gap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Stone Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Stone Gap average
How we know this about Big Stone Gap
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 Big Stone Gap’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 Big Stone Gap
When does frost risk typically end in Big Stone Gap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Big Stone Gap typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Big Stone Gap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Big Stone Gap typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Big Stone Gap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Big Stone Gap sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 21, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Stone Gap?
The federal record around Big Stone Gap is a meaningful one — 148 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (119), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Big Stone Gap?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Big Stone Gap's scale — its 7a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Big Stone Gap'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 Big Stone Gap’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Big Stone Gap's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,071 acres it covers and 148 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Stone Gap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Big Stone Gap's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 4 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 148 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Stone Gap, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Stone Gap's boundary and the 3,071 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Big Stone Gap sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Big Stone Gap 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 Big Stone Gap's 3,071 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wise County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wise County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Wise County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Stone Gap's 3,071 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Stone Gap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,071 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 Big Stone Gap-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Growing region
Nearby growing guides