Avella, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Avella, 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 Avella 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 Avella — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Avella — the short answer
Avella, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 577 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 577 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 Avella's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Avella's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Avella
Each reading below is measured for Avella itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAvella runs about 203 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
MeasuredAvella 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 Avella is in
Avella sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Avella's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Avella
Every plant below cleared Avella's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Avella?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Avella
Spotted lanternfly documented 0 miles from Avella, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Avella
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Avella. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NARQUINI SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- N & W RAILWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- OUR COUNTRY KITCHENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- STROPES AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DOROTHY R SFARA PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PIZZA CASAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- POWERS AUTO WRECKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- AVELLA SUNOCO UNIMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- INDEPENDENCE TWP MAINT BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- A C DELLOVADE INC WAREHOUSEBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- CROSS CREEK TWP WASHINGTON CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- HIGHLAND SPRINGS GOLF COURSEBrownfields · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Avella'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 Avella.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Avella
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Avella
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Avella, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Avella — Superfund (9 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Avella
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 Avella average
Your land is one point inside Avella
Everything above resolves to Avella as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 577 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 Avella Average
Avella Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Avella
- ●One soil character for all of Avella
- ●Frost dates read at Avella's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Avella's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Avella
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Avella, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Avella averages can't show:
We read public map data around Avella — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Avella average
How we know this about Avella
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 Avella’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 Avella
When does frost risk typically end in Avella?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Avella typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Avella?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Avella typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Avella?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Avella sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 17, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Avella?
The federal record around Avella is a meaningful one — 326 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (182), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Avella?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Avella's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Avella'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 Avella’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Avella's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 577 acres it covers and 326 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Avella's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Avella's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 31 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 326 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Avella, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Avella's boundary and the 577 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Avella's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Avellalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Avella's 577 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Avella's 577 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Avella you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 577 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Avella-wide figureread your own land →
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