Avonmore, 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.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Avonmore, 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 Avonmore 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 Avonmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Avonmore — the short answer
Avonmore, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 941 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 941 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 Avonmore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Avonmore's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Avonmore
Each reading below is measured for Avonmore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAvonmore runs about 194 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
MeasuredAvonmore 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 Avonmore is in
Avonmore sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Avonmore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Westmoreland County.
What Grows in Avonmore
Every plant below cleared Avonmore's own zone 6b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Avonmore?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Avonmore
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Avonmore, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Avonmore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Avonmore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITGO REPAIR SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- NOVOSEL RAMP SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- GEORGIA FINANCIAL XIII LLC/AVONMORE PLTToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- GEORGIA FINANCIAL XIII LLC/AVONMORE PLTBrownfields · 2300 ft
- CATHERINES CONVENIENCE CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ANDREE EQUIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CARETAKERS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- LOYALHANNA LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- DEFORNOS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BIMS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- DAVID MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- SALINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Avonmore'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 Avonmore.
Total Sites
306
within ~10 miles of Avonmore
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Avonmore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Avonmore
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 Avonmore
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 Avonmore average
Your land is one point inside Avonmore
Everything above resolves to Avonmore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 941 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 Avonmore Average
Avonmore Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Avonmore
- ●One soil character for all of Avonmore
- ●Frost dates read at Avonmore's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Avonmore's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Avonmore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Avonmore, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Avonmore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Avonmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Avonmore average
How we know this about Avonmore
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 Avonmore’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 Avonmore
When does frost risk typically end in Avonmore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Avonmore typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Avonmore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Avonmore typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Avonmore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Avonmore sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 15, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Avonmore?
The federal record around Avonmore is a meaningful one — 306 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (143), 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 Avonmore?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Avonmore's scale — its 6b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Avonmore'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 Avonmore’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Avonmore's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 941 acres it covers and 306 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Avonmore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Avonmore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 29 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 306 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Avonmore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Avonmore's boundary and the 941 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Avonmore's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Avonmorelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Avonmore's 941 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Westmoreland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Westmoreland 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 Westmoreland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Avonmore's 941 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Avonmore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 941 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 Avonmore-wide figureread your own land →
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