Highland Springs, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Highland Springs, 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 Highland Springs 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 Highland Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Highland Springs — the short answer
Highland Springs, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Highland Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Highland Springs's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Highland Springs
Each reading below is measured for Highland Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHighland Springs runs about 238 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
MeasuredHighland Springs 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 Highland Springs is in
Highland Springs sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Highland Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henrico County.
What Grows in Highland Springs
Every plant below cleared Highland Springs's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Highland Springs?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Highland Springs
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Highland Springs, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Highland Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Highland Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pointers Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CITIZENS MACHINE SHOPBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Springer Auto and Citizens MechanicUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- DTMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Confederate Hills Sewage Pump StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Lakes Golf ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Kitchen Equipment Company of Virginia IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HAWTHORNE CLEANERS & LAUNDRYBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Hawthorne Laundry and Dry CleanersUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- School Board Office BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Williford's ServicenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VIRGINIA COLLISION CTR.Brownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Highland Springs'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 Highland Springs.
Total Sites
2,087
within ~10 miles of Highland Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Highland Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Highland Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Highland Springs, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,442 sites within ~10 miles of Highland Springs. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Highland Springs
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 Highland Springs average
Your land is one point inside Highland Springs
Everything above resolves to Highland Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Highland Springs Average
Highland Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Highland Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Highland Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Highland Springs's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Highland Springs's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Highland Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Highland Springs, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Highland Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Highland Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Highland Springs average
How we know this about Highland Springs
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 Highland Springs’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 Highland Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Highland Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Highland Springs typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Highland Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Highland Springs typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Highland Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Highland Springs sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 2, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Highland Springs?
The federal record around Highland Springs is a meaningful one — 2,087 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,442), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Highland Springs?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Highland Springs's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Highland Springs'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 Highland Springs’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Highland Springs's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,103 acres it covers and 2,087 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Highland Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Highland Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 16 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,087 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Highland Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Highland Springs's boundary and the 5,103 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Highland Springs's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Highland Springslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Highland Springs's 5,103 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 Highland Springs's 5,103 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Highland Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,103 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Highland Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaHighland Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides