Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Beaver Falls, 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 Beaver Falls 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 Beaver Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beaver Falls — the short answer
Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Beaver Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beaver Falls's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beaver Falls
Each reading below is measured for Beaver Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeaver Falls runs about 207 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
MeasuredBeaver Falls 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 Beaver Falls is in
Beaver Falls sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beaver Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beaver County.
What Grows in Beaver Falls
Every plant below cleared Beaver Falls's own zone 6b and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beaver Falls?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Beaver Falls
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Beaver Falls, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Beaver Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beaver Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BIG BEAVER FALLS AREA HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BIG BEAVER MID SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- KELLYS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CITY DRY CLEANBrownfields · 900 ft
- SHERWIN WILLIAMS NO 1881Brownfields · 1000 ft
- BEAVER FALLS CITY STREETSCAPE PROJECTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JONES CHRYSLER PLYMOUTH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FRIEND BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BIG BEAVER FALLS CTL ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 1845Brownfields · 1300 ft
- WPCPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BEAVER FALLS MUNI AUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beaver Falls'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 Beaver Falls.
Total Sites
657
within ~10 miles of Beaver Falls
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beaver Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beaver Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beaver Falls, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Beaver Falls — Toxics Release Inventory (64 sites) and PFAS (7 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Beaver Falls
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 Beaver Falls average
Your land is one point inside Beaver Falls
Everything above resolves to Beaver Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 city 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 Beaver Falls Average
Beaver Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Beaver Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Beaver Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Beaver Falls's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beaver Falls's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beaver Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beaver Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beaver Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beaver Falls average
How we know this about Beaver Falls
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Beaver Falls’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Beaver Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Beaver Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beaver Falls typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Beaver Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beaver Falls typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beaver Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beaver Falls sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 22, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beaver Falls?
The federal record around Beaver Falls is a meaningful one — 657 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (354), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Beaver Falls?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Beaver Falls's scale — its 6b band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beaver Falls'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 Beaver Falls’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Beaver Falls's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,366 acres it covers and 657 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beaver Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beaver Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 5 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 657 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beaver Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beaver Falls's boundary and the 1,366 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beaver Falls's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Beaver Fallslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beaver Falls's 1,366 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beaver County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beaver 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 Beaver County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beaver Falls's 1,366 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beaver Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,366 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Beaver Falls-wide figureread your own land →