Stone Ridge, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Stone Ridge, 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 Stone Ridge 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 Stone Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stone Ridge — the short answer
Stone Ridge, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- 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
- ~222
- 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 7a is Stone Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stone Ridge's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stone Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Stone Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStone Ridge runs about 222 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
MeasuredStone Ridge 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 Stone Ridge is in
Stone Ridge sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Stone Ridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Loudoun County.
What Grows in Stone Ridge
Every plant below cleared Stone Ridge's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stone Ridge?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (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 Stone Ridge
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Stone Ridge, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stone Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stone Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LCPS - HOVATTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1200 ft
- LCPS - GUM SPRING MSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LCPS - GOSHEN POST ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- LCPS - ARCOLA ESBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- LCPS - JOHN CHAMPE HSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- LCPS - PINEBROOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- HEALTHSOUTH REHABILITATION HOSPITAL NORTHERN VIRGINIABrownfields · 1.0 mi
- WALGREENS STORE #9949Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- HARRIS TEETER 238Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- 7 Eleven 33651Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Gum Spring BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LCPS - FREEDOM HSBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stone Ridge'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 Stone Ridge.
Total Sites
1,036
within ~10 miles of Stone Ridge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stone Ridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stone Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stone Ridge, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 512 sites within ~10 miles of Stone Ridge. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Stone Ridge
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 Stone Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Stone Ridge
Everything above resolves to Stone Ridge 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 Stone Ridge Average
Stone Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Stone Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Stone Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Stone Ridge's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stone Ridge's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stone Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stone Ridge, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stone Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stone Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stone Ridge average
How we know this about Stone Ridge
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 Stone Ridge’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 Stone Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Stone Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stone Ridge typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Stone Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stone Ridge 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 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stone Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stone Ridge sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 23, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stone Ridge?
The federal record around Stone Ridge is a meaningful one — 1,036 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (512), the nearest Brownfields 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 Stone Ridge?
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 Stone Ridge's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stone Ridge'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 Stone Ridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stone Ridge's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,654 acres it covers and 1,036 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stone Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stone Ridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 6 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,036 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stone Ridge, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stone Ridge's boundary and the 1,654 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stone Ridge's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Stone Ridgelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stone Ridge's 1,654 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Loudoun County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Loudoun 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 Loudoun County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stone Ridge's 1,654 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stone Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,654 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Stone Ridge-wide figureread your own land →