Regional guide · hardiness Zone 7
Mid-Atlantic, Upper South and the sheltered corners of Canada.
Zone 7 covers the Mid-Atlantic (New York City to Washington), the Upper South (Nashville, Asheville, St. Louis, Oklahoma City), the high Southwest (Albuquerque) and the intermountain West (Boise, Spokane), plus Canada’s warmest pockets — Windsor, the Niagara fruit belt and the Okanagan. Winters are short with occasional hard freezes; summers are hot and, east of the plains, humid.
Winter low
−18 to −12°C
0 to 10°F
Frost-free days
180–220
Typical frost window
Roughly mid-April to early November.
Regions in Zone 7
Open any region for this week's live local guide — forecast, soil, moon, waters and an AI field note.
Gardening in Zone 7
Two full seasons: a spring garden, a heat-loving summer garden and a fall garden that runs to Thanksgiving, with hardy greens overwintering outdoors. Heat and humidity, not cold, are the main challenges in the east; drought in the west.
Vegetables that thrive
- Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant (heat-tolerant varieties for July–August)
- Okra, sweet potatoes and southern peas
- Melons and watermelons
- Spring and fall broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower
- Overwintering kale, collards, spinach and garlic
- Beans, cucumbers and squash in succession
- Fall carrots, beets and turnips
- Lettuce spring and fall (bolts in summer)
Fruit
- Peaches, nectarines and plums
- Figs (outdoors, unprotected in most sites)
- Apples and pears (low-chill not needed)
- Grapes including vinifera (Niagara, Okanagan, Virginia)
- Blueberries and blackberries
- Persimmons (American and hardy Asian)
- Pomegranate and pawpaw (marginal/regional)
- Muscadines in the southern part
Reliable perennials & shrubs
- Crape myrtle
- Camellia (sasanqua and hardy japonica)
- Rosemary and lavender outdoors
- Southern magnolia
- Hydrangea macrophylla
- Gardenia (hardy cultivars, marginal)
Zone tips
- Plant tomatoes in mid-April; set out a second planting in early July to carry through fall.
- In the humid east, prioritise disease-resistant varieties and drip irrigation.
- Sow fall brassicas in late July/August — fall is the best season for them here.
- Garlic goes in late October–November; plant hardy greens in September for winter picking.
Fishing in Zone 7
Warm-water fishing year-round: largemouth bass, crappie, catfish and stripers in the big reservoirs and rivers, smallmouth in the Appalachian and Ozark streams, trout in the mountains and tailwaters, and striped bass, bluefish and flounder along the Atlantic coast.
Signature species
- Largemouth and smallmouth bass
- Striped bass and hybrid stripers (reservoirs and coast)
- Crappie and bluegill
- Channel, blue and flathead catfish
- Trout in tailwaters and mountain streams
- Walleye and sauger (Missouri, Tennessee rivers)
- Bluefish, flounder and weakfish (Mid-Atlantic coast)
- Steelhead and salmon (Idaho, Washington rivers)
Seasons, limits and licences vary by province and state; every local guide links to the right regulator.
Foraging in Zone 7
Long seasons on both ends: ramps and morels in March–April, a summer of berries and mulberries, then pawpaws, persimmons, nuts and mushrooms deep into November. The Southwest adds piñon nuts and prickly pear.
What to look for
- Morels and ramps (early spring)
- Mulberries, wineberries and blackberries
- Pawpaws and persimmons (fall)
- Black walnuts, hickories, chestnuts (Chinese) and pecans
- Chanterelles (summer), hen of the woods and lion's mane (fall)
- Wild grapes and muscadines
- Piñon nuts and prickly pear (Southwest)
- Chickweed, dandelion and wild onion through winter
Never eat anything you cannot identify with certainty. Confirm with a regional field guide or local expert.
The Zone 7 year
February
Start tomatoes and peppers indoors; plant peas and potatoes late month; prune fruit trees.
March–April
Cool crops out in March, tomatoes mid-April; morels and ramps; crappie spawn; shad and striper runs.
May–June
Everything growing; berries; bass on beds then deep; garlic harvest in June.
July–August
Heat: mulch and water; second tomato planting; chanterelles; fish early, late or at night.
September–October
Fall garden peaks; pawpaws and persimmons; nuts; stripers and bass feed up as water cools.
November–January
First frost early November; overwintering greens; plant garlic; winter trout in tailwaters.
Get the weekly note for your Zone 7 garden
What to plant, what's biting and what's ripening — one email a week, tuned to your area.