Stony Creek, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Stony Creek, 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 Stony Creek 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 Stony Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stony Creek — the short answer
Stony Creek, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 369 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 369 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 Stony Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stony Creek's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stony Creek
Each reading below is measured for Stony Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStony Creek runs about 232 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
MeasuredStony Creek 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 Stony Creek is in
Stony Creek sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Stony Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sussex County.
What Grows in Stony Creek
Every plant below cleared Stony Creek's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stony Creek?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Stony Creek
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Stony Creek, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stony Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stony Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OF STONY CREEKUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- STONEY CREEK TOWN 191-002Nitrate · 550 ft
- STONY CREEK HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KAYO SITE FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MATTHEWS MOTOR CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- YOUNGS INN RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- STONY CREEK TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FORMER PEANUT FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Stony Creek Junior High School FormerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ROSE OIL COMPANY, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 51D 5Nitrate · 1900 ft
- US Food and FuelUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stony Creek'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 Stony Creek.
Total Sites
56
within ~10 miles of Stony Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stony Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stony Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stony Creek, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 49 sites within ~10 miles of Stony Creek. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Stony Creek
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 Stony Creek average
Your land is one point inside Stony Creek
Everything above resolves to Stony Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 369 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 Stony Creek Average
Stony Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Stony Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Stony Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Stony Creek's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stony Creek's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stony Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stony Creek, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stony Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stony Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stony Creek average
How we know this about Stony Creek
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 Stony Creek’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 Stony Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Stony Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stony Creek typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Stony Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stony Creek typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stony Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stony Creek sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 27, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stony Creek?
The federal record around Stony Creek is a meaningful one — 56 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), 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 Stony Creek?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stony Creek's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stony Creek'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 Stony Creek’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stony Creek's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 369 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stony Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stony Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 10 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stony Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stony Creek's boundary and the 369 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stony Creek's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Stony Creeklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stony Creek's 369 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sussex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sussex 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 Sussex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stony Creek's 369 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stony Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 369 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 Stony Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaStony Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides