Goshen, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Goshen, 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 Goshen 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 Goshen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Goshen — the short answer
Goshen, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Goshen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goshen's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goshen
Each reading below is measured for Goshen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGoshen runs about 207 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
MeasuredGoshen 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 Goshen is in
Goshen sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Goshen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rockbridge County.
What Grows in Goshen
Every plant below cleared Goshen's own zone 7a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goshen?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Goshen
Spotted lanternfly documented 12 miles from Goshen, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Goshen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goshen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- C & Ks HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GEORGIA-PACIFIC GOSHEN WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Goshen ConvenienceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Stillwater Inc / Southern Worsted Company IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- STELLA-JONES CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- STELLA-JONES CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- STILLWATER INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- STILLWATER INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- BLUEGRASS WOODS INCBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- BACOVA GUILD LTDToxics Release Inventory · 4.8 mi
- DOUTHAT ST PARKBrownfields · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goshen'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 Goshen.
Total Sites
37
within ~10 miles of Goshen
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goshen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goshen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goshen, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Goshen — Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (28 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Goshen
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 Goshen average
Your land is one point inside Goshen
Everything above resolves to Goshen as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Goshen Average
Goshen Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Goshen
- ●One soil character for all of Goshen
- ●Frost dates read at Goshen's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goshen's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goshen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goshen, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goshen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goshen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goshen average
How we know this about Goshen
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 Goshen’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 Goshen
When does frost risk typically end in Goshen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goshen typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Goshen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goshen typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goshen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goshen sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 14, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goshen?
The federal record around Goshen is a meaningful one — 37 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Goshen?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Goshen's scale — its 7a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goshen'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 Goshen’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Goshen's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,106 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goshen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goshen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 28 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goshen, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goshen's boundary and the 1,106 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goshen's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Goshenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Goshen's 1,106 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rockbridge County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rockbridge 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 Rockbridge County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goshen's 1,106 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goshen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,106 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Goshen-wide figureread your own land →