Allison Park, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Allison 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 Allison 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 Allison Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Allison Park — the short answer
Allison Park, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 6b is Allison Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Allison Park's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Allison Park
Each reading below is measured for Allison Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAllison Park runs about 220 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
MeasuredAllison Park sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Allison Park is in
Allison Park sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Allison Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegheny County.
What Grows in Allison Park
Every plant below cleared Allison Park's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Allison Park?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Allison Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Allison Park, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Allison Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Allison Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DRB CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FOREIGN TRAFFIC INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SUPER SUCKER INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- KUNKLE, BUD AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 2600 ft
- MONRO MUFFLER BRAKE #87Brownfields · 2600 ft
- SOHIO OIL CO (SITE # 57014)Brownfields · 2600 ft
- MILLER ELEC CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HAMPTON PROFESSIONAL BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FORMS & SURFACES CO INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- C & R RESEARCH CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PPG - RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT FACILITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FRANK SABEN AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Allison 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 Allison Park.
Total Sites
2,248
within ~10 miles of Allison Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Allison Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Allison Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Allison Park, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 138 sites within ~10 miles of Allison Park. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Allison 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 Allison Park average
Your land is one point inside Allison Park
Everything above resolves to Allison Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Allison Park Average
Allison Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Allison Park
- ●One soil character for all of Allison Park
- ●Frost dates read at Allison Park's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Allison Park's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Allison Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Allison Park, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Allison Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Allison Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Allison Park average
How we know this about Allison 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 Allison 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 Allison Park
When does frost risk typically end in Allison Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Allison Park typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Allison Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Allison Park typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Allison Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Allison Park sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 28, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Allison Park?
The federal record around Allison Park is a meaningful one — 2,248 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,058), 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 Allison Park?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Allison Park's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Allison 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 Allison Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Allison Park's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,874 acres it covers and 2,248 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Allison Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Allison Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 11 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,248 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Allison Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Allison Park's boundary and the 8,874 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Allison Park's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Allison Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Allison Park's 8,874 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegheny County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegheny County
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Allegheny County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Allison Park's 8,874 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Allison 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 8,874 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 Allison Park-wide figureread your own land →