Staunton city, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Staunton city lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Staunton city holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Staunton city, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Staunton city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Staunton city — the short answer
Staunton city, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 13K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Staunton city's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Staunton city's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Staunton city
Across a year, Staunton city accumulates about 3,202 growing degree days above 50°F, about 532 fewer than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 26 of Virginia’s 133 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Staunton County
Detailed USDA soil-survey (SSURGO) mapping is limited across Staunton County, so there isn't a reliable county-wide soil summary to show here yet — a gap in the national survey, not in the ground itself.
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Staunton city
Each reading below is measured for Staunton city itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStaunton city runs about 215 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
MeasuredStaunton city 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 Staunton city is in
Staunton city sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Staunton city
We scored all 1,086 plants against Staunton city's own USDA zone 7a and its own 215-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile.
Is it too late to plant in Staunton city?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 2 — 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 Staunton city
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Staunton city, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Staunton County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Staunton County — 210 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Staunton County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Staunton city
Closest first, across Staunton County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- R W CASH MECHANICAL CONTR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BROWNSBURG ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- WALGREENS STORE #17607Brownfields · 450 ft
- OAK HILL NURSING HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 7-Eleven Store 11122Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- KINGS DAUGHTERS HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- KJS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Virginia School For The Deaf & Blind StauntonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- USPS - STAUNTON MAIN POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- MARY BALDWIN COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Denos Food Mart #8Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- AUGUSTA BLOCK, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Staunton city'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 Staunton city.
Total Sites
210
across Staunton County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Staunton County
Severity Distribution
across Staunton County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Staunton city, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 171 sites across Staunton County. 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 Staunton city
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 Staunton city average
Your land is one point inside Staunton city
Everything above resolves to Staunton city as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 13K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Staunton city Average
Staunton city Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Staunton city
- ●One soil character for all of Staunton city
- ●Frost dates read at Staunton city's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Staunton city's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Staunton city
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Staunton city, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Staunton city averages can't show:
We read public map data around Staunton city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Staunton city average
How we know this about Staunton city
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Staunton city carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Staunton city
When does frost risk typically end in Staunton city?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Staunton city 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.
How long is the growing season in Staunton city?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Staunton city sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 19, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Staunton city?
The federal record around Staunton city is a meaningful one — 210 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (171), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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.
Everything above is measured at Staunton city's scale — its 7a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Staunton city's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Virginia's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Staunton city’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Staunton city's own scale — its own ~215-day span between 28°F freezes and 210 documented sites inside its boundary; 2 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Staunton city's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Staunton city's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 210 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Staunton city's boundary and the 12,749 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Staunton city sitting wholly inside the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Staunton city for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
Inherited from a wider read
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Staunton city — the ~215 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Staunton city's 12,749 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 210 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Staunton cityread your own land →