Belspring, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Belspring, 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 Belspring 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 Belspring — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Belspring — the short answer
Belspring, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 612 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 612 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 Belspring's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belspring's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belspring
Each reading below is measured for Belspring itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBelspring runs about 202 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
MeasuredBelspring 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 Belspring is in
Belspring sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Belspring's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pulaski County.
What Grows in Belspring
Every plant below cleared Belspring's own zone 7a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belspring?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Belspring
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Belspring, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Belspring
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belspring. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TWIN COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Longshop GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- B M MCCOY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- MIDWAY GROCERY & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- VIRGINIA TECH KENTLAND FARMBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- VPI&SU - WHITETHORNE FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- H T BOWLING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- ELEVEN WEST PROFESSIONAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Peppers Ferry Regional RWTA Maint PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- FAIRLAWN SERVICE CENTER / S/S #2-2061Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- RADFORD FOODETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- USA RADFORD AMMUNITION PLANTSuperfund · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belspring'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 Belspring.
Total Sites
295
within ~10 miles of Belspring
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belspring
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belspring
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Belspring, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Belspring — Toxics Release Inventory (24 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Belspring
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 Belspring average
Your land is one point inside Belspring
Everything above resolves to Belspring as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 612 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 Belspring Average
Belspring Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Belspring
- ●One soil character for all of Belspring
- ●Frost dates read at Belspring's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belspring's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belspring
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belspring, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belspring averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belspring — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belspring average
How we know this about Belspring
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 Belspring’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 Belspring
When does frost risk typically end in Belspring?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belspring typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Belspring?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belspring typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belspring?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belspring sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 12, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belspring?
The federal record around Belspring is a meaningful one — 295 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (193), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Belspring?
From about Sep 26 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 Oct 26 (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 Oct 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Belspring's scale — its 7a band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belspring'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 Belspring’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Belspring's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 612 acres it covers and 295 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belspring's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Belspring's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 26 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 295 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belspring, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belspring's boundary and the 612 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Belspring's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Belspringlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Belspring's 612 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pulaski County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pulaski 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 Pulaski County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Belspring's 612 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belspring you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 612 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Belspring-wide figureread your own land →
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