Moneta, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Moneta, 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 Moneta 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 Moneta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Moneta — the short answer
Moneta, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- 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 7b is Moneta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moneta's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moneta
Each reading below is measured for Moneta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoneta runs about 225 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
MeasuredMoneta sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Moneta is in
Moneta sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Moneta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bedford County.
What Grows in Moneta
Every plant below cleared Moneta's own zone 7b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moneta?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Moneta
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Moneta, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Moneta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moneta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Moneta Rescue SquadUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- MONETA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MONETA TRACTOR & TRAILERBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CRAFT COLLISION CENTER MONETA LOCATIONBrownfields · 1800 ft
- HEATH'S TIRE AND LUBEBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Falls Welding and RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- OLD TUCKS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MONETA FARM SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Lakers Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- OLD COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- THE COVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DeLongs ServicenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moneta'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 Moneta.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Moneta
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moneta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moneta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moneta, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 85 sites within ~10 miles of Moneta. 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 Moneta
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 Moneta average
Your land is one point inside Moneta
Everything above resolves to Moneta 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 Moneta Average
Moneta Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Moneta
- ●One soil character for all of Moneta
- ●Frost dates read at Moneta's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moneta's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moneta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moneta, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moneta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moneta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moneta average
How we know this about Moneta
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 Moneta’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 Moneta
When does frost risk typically end in Moneta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moneta typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Moneta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moneta typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moneta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moneta sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 25, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moneta?
The federal record around Moneta is a meaningful one — 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Moneta?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Moneta's scale — its 7b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moneta'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 Moneta’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Moneta's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,454 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moneta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moneta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 8 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moneta, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moneta's boundary and the 2,454 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Moneta's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Monetalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moneta's 2,454 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bedford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bedford 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 Bedford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moneta's 2,454 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moneta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,454 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Moneta-wide figureread your own land →
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