Highspire, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Highspire, 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 Highspire 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 Highspire — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Highspire — the short answer
Highspire, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 460 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 460 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 Highspire's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Highspire's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Highspire
Each reading below is measured for Highspire itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHighspire runs about 229 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
MeasuredHighspire 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 Highspire is in
Highspire sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Highspire's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dauphin County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Highspire
Every plant below cleared Highspire's own zone 7a and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Highspire?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Highspire
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Highspire, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Highspire
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Highspire. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PIEDMONT AIRLINES MDT GSE SHOPBrownfields · 500 ft
- CITIZENS FIRE CO 1 OF HIGHSPIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- STAMBAUGHS AIR SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CE LUTZUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HIGHSPIRE WWTPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HIGHSPIRE SCH APTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GROSS HDWRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CONAGRA FOODS/HIGHSPIREToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- HIGHLAND FARM FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CTL ADMIN BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ROYAL MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SMITHS GAS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Highspire'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 Highspire.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Highspire
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Highspire
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Highspire
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 Highspire average
Your land is one point inside Highspire
Everything above resolves to Highspire as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 460 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 Highspire Average
Highspire Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Highspire
- ●One soil character for all of Highspire
- ●Frost dates read at Highspire's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Highspire's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Highspire
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Highspire, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Highspire averages can't show:
We read public map data around Highspire — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Highspire average
How we know this about Highspire
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 Highspire’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 Highspire
When does frost risk typically end in Highspire?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Highspire typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Highspire?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Highspire typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Highspire?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Highspire sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 31, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Highspire?
The federal record around Highspire is a meaningful one — 1,671 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,017), the nearest Brownfields 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 Highspire?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Highspire's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Highspire'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 Highspire’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Highspire's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 460 acres it covers and 1,671 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Highspire's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Highspire's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 14 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,671 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Highspire, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Highspire's boundary and the 460 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Highspire sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Highspirelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Highspire's 460 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dauphin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dauphin County
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Dauphin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Highspire's 460 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Highspire you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 460 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Highspire-wide figureread your own land →
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