Staunton, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Staunton, 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 Staunton 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 Staunton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Staunton — the short answer
Staunton, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of city.
- 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 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 13K 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 Staunton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Staunton's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Staunton
Each reading below is measured for Staunton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStaunton 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 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 is in
Staunton sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Staunton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Staunton city.
What Grows in Staunton
Every plant below cleared Staunton's own zone 7a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Staunton?
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 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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Staunton
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Staunton, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Staunton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Staunton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROWNSBURG ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- R W CASH MECHANICAL CONTR INCUnderground 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'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.
Total Sites
463
within ~10 miles of Staunton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Staunton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Staunton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Staunton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 341 sites within ~10 miles of Staunton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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
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 average
Your land is one point inside Staunton
Everything above resolves to Staunton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F 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 city 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 Staunton Average
Staunton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Staunton
- ●One soil character for all of Staunton
- ●Frost dates read at Staunton's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Staunton's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Staunton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Staunton, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Staunton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Staunton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Staunton average
How we know this about Staunton
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Staunton’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Staunton
When does frost risk typically end in Staunton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Staunton 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 Staunton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Staunton typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Staunton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Staunton 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?
The federal record around Staunton is a meaningful one — 463 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (341), 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 Staunton?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Staunton's scale — its 7a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Staunton'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 Staunton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Staunton's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,749 acres it covers and 463 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Staunton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Staunton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 2 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 463 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Staunton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Staunton'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
- The ecoregion at Staunton's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Stauntonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Staunton's 12,749 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Staunton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Staunton 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 Staunton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Staunton's 12,749 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Staunton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,749 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 Staunton-wide figureread your own land →
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