Philadelphia, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Philadelphia, 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 Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Philadelphia — the short answer
Philadelphia, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 613 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 613 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 5a is Philadelphia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Philadelphia's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Philadelphia
Each reading below is measured for Philadelphia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPhiladelphia runs about 187 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPhiladelphia sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Philadelphia is in
Philadelphia sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Philadelphia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Philadelphia
Every plant below cleared Philadelphia's own zone 5a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Philadelphia?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Philadelphia
Survey cells within 31 miles of Philadelphia checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 78 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Philadelphia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Philadelphia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAC'S AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- PHILADELPHIA PRIMARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- JEFFERSON COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPT BIN 3339390Brownfields · 1500 ft
- ROE FARM SERVICE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- STEWART'S SHOPS #429Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 9086Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- PHILADELPHIA(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NYSDOT BRIDGE BIN 1008710Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- CLARK DEHARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- INDIAN RIVER CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SUBURBAN PROPANE HEATING OIL PARTNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- JEFFERSON CO HIGHWAY DEPT BIN 3339380Brownfields · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Philadelphia'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 Philadelphia.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Philadelphia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Philadelphia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Philadelphia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Philadelphia — CAFO (4 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Philadelphia
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 Philadelphia average
Your land is one point inside Philadelphia
Everything above resolves to Philadelphia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 613 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 Philadelphia Average
Philadelphia Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Philadelphia
- ●One soil character for all of Philadelphia
- ●Frost dates read at Philadelphia's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Philadelphia's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Philadelphia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Philadelphia, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Philadelphia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Philadelphia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Philadelphia average
How we know this about Philadelphia
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 Philadelphia’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 Philadelphia
When does frost risk typically end in Philadelphia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Philadelphia typically lands around Apr 20, 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 May 11.
When is the first frost in Philadelphia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Philadelphia typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Philadelphia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Philadelphia sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 10, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Philadelphia?
The federal record around Philadelphia is a meaningful one — 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), 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 Philadelphia?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Philadelphia's scale — its 5a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Philadelphia'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 Philadelphia’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Philadelphia's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 613 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Philadelphia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Philadelphia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 24 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Philadelphia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Philadelphia's boundary and the 613 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Philadelphia's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Philadelphia checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Philadelphia's 613 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson County
- The growing challenges every New York grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New York
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Philadelphia's 613 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Philadelphia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 613 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 Philadelphia-wide figureread your own land →