Belfast, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Belfast, 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 Belfast 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 Belfast — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Belfast — the short answer
Belfast, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 787 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- 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
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 787 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 Belfast's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belfast's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belfast
Each reading below is measured for Belfast itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBelfast runs about 205 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
MeasuredBelfast 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 Belfast is in
Belfast sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Belfast's own centroid rather than borrowed from Northampton County.
What Grows in Belfast
Every plant below cleared Belfast's own zone 6b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belfast?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Belfast
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Belfast, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Belfast
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belfast. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GEORGE M WILLAUER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- LESTER E FEHNELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- QWIK STOP IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SPECK PLASTICSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PLAINFIELD ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- NICOS POLYMERS GROUP-CALCIUM SOFTENERToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- OLIN MICROELECTRONICS MATERIALSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- OLIN ELECTRONIC MATERIALSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AEP STOCKERTOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GEMINI MACHINING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- STOCKERTOWN SALOONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ATLANTIC SERVICER STATIONBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belfast'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 Belfast.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belfast
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belfast
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Belfast, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 71 sites within ~10 miles of Belfast. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Belfast
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 Belfast average
Your land is one point inside Belfast
Everything above resolves to Belfast as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 787 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 Belfast Average
Belfast Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Belfast
- ●One soil character for all of Belfast
- ●Frost dates read at Belfast's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belfast's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belfast
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belfast, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belfast averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belfast — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belfast average
How we know this about Belfast
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 Belfast’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 Belfast
When does frost risk typically end in Belfast?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belfast typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Belfast?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belfast 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 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belfast?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belfast sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 15, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belfast?
The federal record around Belfast is a meaningful one — 1,030 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (576), 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 Belfast?
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 Belfast's scale — its 6b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belfast'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 Belfast’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Belfast's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 787 acres it covers and 1,030 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belfast's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Belfast's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 29 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,030 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belfast, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belfast's boundary and the 787 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Belfast's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Belfastlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Belfast's 787 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Northampton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Northampton 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 Northampton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Belfast's 787 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belfast you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 787 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 Belfast-wide figureread your own land →