South Hill, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in South Hill, 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 South Hill 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 South Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Hill — the short answer
South Hill, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- 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
- ~239
- 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 South Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Hill's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Hill
Each reading below is measured for South Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Hill runs about 239 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
MeasuredSouth Hill 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 South Hill is in
South Hill sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at South Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mecklenburg County.
What Grows in South Hill
Every plant below cleared South Hill's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Hill?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (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. 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 South Hill
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from South Hill, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near South Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JEFFREYS LAMBERT 76 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- QUIK STOP #2Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- SPRINT/SOUTH HILL CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- A.B. WATKINS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- HUDSONS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Former Lincoln Hotel GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CHARLES H. CROWDER; JR MDUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CLEATON PONTIAC COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- F E WATKINS MOTOR CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CLEATON HARDWARE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SOUTH HILL EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HALL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Hill'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 South Hill.
Total Sites
175
within ~10 miles of South Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Hill, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 153 sites within ~10 miles of South Hill. 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 South Hill
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 South Hill average
Your land is one point inside South Hill
Everything above resolves to South Hill 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 South Hill Average
South Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across South Hill
- ●One soil character for all of South Hill
- ●Frost dates read at South Hill's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Hill's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Hill, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Hill average
How we know this about South Hill
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 South Hill’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 South Hill
When does frost risk typically end in South Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Hill typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in South Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Hill 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 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Hill sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 2, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Hill?
The federal record around South Hill is a meaningful one — 175 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (153), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 South Hill?
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 South Hill's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Hill'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 South Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at South Hill's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,308 acres it covers and 175 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 16 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 175 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Hill's boundary and the 6,308 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Hill's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of South Hilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Hill's 6,308 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mecklenburg County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mecklenburg 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 Mecklenburg County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Hill's 6,308 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,308 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 South Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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