Bellwood, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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 Bellwood, 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 Bellwood 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 Bellwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bellwood — the short answer
Bellwood, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 305 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 305 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 Bellwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bellwood's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bellwood
Each reading below is measured for Bellwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBellwood runs about 199 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
MeasuredBellwood 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 Bellwood is in
Bellwood sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bellwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blair County.
What Grows in Bellwood
Every plant below cleared Bellwood's own zone 6b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bellwood?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Bellwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Bellwood, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bellwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bellwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JG PACKING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- SHEETZ 33Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- MAIN ST MINI MART 203Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MARTIN OIL 001Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- FOWLERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MARTIN FARMS 199Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SCH BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ANTIS TWP SPVRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SHEETZ STORE 33Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- KEYSTONE DATA SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MARTIN GEN STORE 207Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MARTIN OIL CO MARTIN GENERAL STOREBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bellwood'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 Bellwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bellwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bellwood
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 Bellwood
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 Bellwood average
Your land is one point inside Bellwood
Everything above resolves to Bellwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 305 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 Bellwood Average
Bellwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bellwood
- ●One soil character for all of Bellwood
- ●Frost dates read at Bellwood's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bellwood's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bellwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bellwood, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bellwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bellwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bellwood average
How we know this about Bellwood
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 Bellwood’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 Bellwood
When does frost risk typically end in Bellwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bellwood typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Bellwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bellwood typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bellwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bellwood sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 16, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bellwood?
The federal record around Bellwood is a meaningful one — 424 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (219), 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 Bellwood?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bellwood's scale — its 6b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bellwood'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 Bellwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bellwood's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 305 acres it covers and 424 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bellwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bellwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 30 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 424 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bellwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bellwood's boundary and the 305 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bellwood's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bellwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bellwood's 305 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blair 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 Blair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bellwood's 305 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bellwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 305 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 Bellwood-wide figureread your own land →
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