Ashville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Ashville, 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 Ashville 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 Ashville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ashville — the short answer
Ashville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 113 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 113 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 6a is Ashville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ashville's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ashville
Each reading below is measured for Ashville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAshville runs about 189 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
MeasuredAshville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Ashville is in
Ashville sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ashville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cambria County.
What Grows in Ashville
Every plant below cleared Ashville's own zone 6a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ashville?
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 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 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Ashville
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Ashville, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ashville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ashville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DESCANIOS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- ASHVILLE AUTO SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- JIMS AUTO BODY & REPAIRBrownfields · 450 ft
- ASHVILLE MINIT MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- AUTO WORKS UNLIMITEDBrownfields · 600 ft
- CA 100Nitrate · 2400 ft
- EP BENDER COAL CO DYSART SIDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CA 229Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- BATHURST BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- PHILLIP BALZANO TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BALZANO TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- JC MCGOUGH & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ashville'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 Ashville.
Total Sites
464
within ~10 miles of Ashville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ashville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ashville
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Ashville
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 Ashville average
Your land is one point inside Ashville
Everything above resolves to Ashville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 113 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 Ashville Average
Ashville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ashville
- ●One soil character for all of Ashville
- ●Frost dates read at Ashville's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ashville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ashville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ashville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ashville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ashville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ashville average
How we know this about Ashville
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 Ashville’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 Ashville
When does frost risk typically end in Ashville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ashville 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 Ashville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ashville typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ashville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ashville sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 12, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ashville?
The federal record around Ashville is a meaningful one — 464 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (263), 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 Ashville?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ashville's scale — its 6a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ashville'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 Ashville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ashville's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 113 acres it covers and 464 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ashville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ashville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 26 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 464 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ashville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ashville's boundary and the 113 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ashville's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ashvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ashville's 113 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cambria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cambria 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 Cambria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ashville's 113 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ashville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 113 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 Ashville-wide figureread your own land →