East Highland Park, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, 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 East Highland Park, 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 East Highland Park 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 East Highland Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Highland Park — the short answer
East Highland Park, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 East Highland Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Highland Park's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Highland Park
Each reading below is measured for East Highland Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Highland Park runs about 236 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
MeasuredEast Highland Park 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 East Highland Park is in
East Highland Park sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at East Highland Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henrico County.
What Grows in East Highland Park
Every plant below cleared East Highland Park's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Highland Park?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around East Highland Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from East Highland Park, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Highland Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Highland Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FIRESTONE COMPLETE AUTO CARE #017442Brownfields · 2300 ft
- Firestone Store 0283 017442Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Citgo Quik Mart 1032 30481Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Brite Star Incorporated - Byron ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Speedway 2875Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SPEEDWAY 2875Brownfields · 2500 ft
- WALGREENS STORE #4488Brownfields · 2600 ft
- SOOK K. LEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Henry W Woody IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Merchants Tire IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Ratcliffe Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 7 Eleven 22719Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Highland Park'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 East Highland Park.
Total Sites
2,601
within ~10 miles of East Highland Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Highland Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Highland Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Highland Park, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,783 sites within ~10 miles of East Highland Park. 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 East Highland Park
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 East Highland Park average
Your land is one point inside East Highland Park
Everything above resolves to East Highland Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 East Highland Park Average
East Highland Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across East Highland Park
- ●One soil character for all of East Highland Park
- ●Frost dates read at East Highland Park's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Highland Park's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Highland Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Highland Park, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Highland Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Highland Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Highland Park average
How we know this about East Highland Park
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 East Highland Park’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 East Highland Park
When does frost risk typically end in East Highland Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Highland Park typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in East Highland Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Highland Park typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Highland Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Highland Park sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 1, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Highland Park?
The federal record around East Highland Park is a meaningful one — 2,601 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,783), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 East Highland Park?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Highland Park's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Highland Park'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 East Highland Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at East Highland Park's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,622 acres it covers and 2,601 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Highland Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Highland Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 15 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,601 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Highland Park, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Highland Park's boundary and the 5,622 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Highland Park's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of East Highland Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Highland Park's 5,622 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henrico County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henrico 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 Henrico County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Highland Park's 5,622 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Highland Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,622 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 East Highland Park-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaEast Highland Park sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides