Ben Avon, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ben Avon, 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 Ben Avon 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 Ben Avon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ben Avon — the short answer
Ben Avon, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 243 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 243 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 Ben Avon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ben Avon's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ben Avon
Each reading below is measured for Ben Avon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBen Avon runs about 228 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
MeasuredBen Avon 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 Ben Avon is in
Ben Avon sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ben Avon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegheny County.
What Grows in Ben Avon
Every plant below cleared Ben Avon's own zone 6b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ben Avon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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 Ben Avon
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Ben Avon, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ben Avon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ben Avon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEN AVON MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PITTSBURGH INDUSTRIAL PLATING INCToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- PITTSBURGH INDUSTRIAL PLATING INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SCHAFFNER MFG CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- SOURCE ONEBrownfields · 2400 ft
- JOHNSTON K J PAINTING LTDBrownfields · 2500 ft
- GULF OIL - NEVILLE ISLAND EAST TERMINALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- GULF OIL - NEVILLE ISLAND EAST TERMINALToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- SHENANGO INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- SHENANGO INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- DENNIS FRIDAY TEXACO SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- A STUCKI COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ben Avon'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 Ben Avon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ben Avon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ben Avon
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Ben Avon
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 Ben Avon average
Your land is one point inside Ben Avon
Everything above resolves to Ben Avon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 243 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 Ben Avon Average
Ben Avon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ben Avon
- ●One soil character for all of Ben Avon
- ●Frost dates read at Ben Avon's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ben Avon's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ben Avon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ben Avon, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ben Avon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ben Avon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ben Avon average
How we know this about Ben Avon
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 Ben Avon’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 Ben Avon
When does frost risk typically end in Ben Avon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ben Avon typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Ben Avon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ben Avon typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ben Avon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ben Avon sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Nov 1, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ben Avon?
The federal record around Ben Avon is a meaningful one — 2,645 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,265), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Ben Avon?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ben Avon's scale — its 6b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ben Avon'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 Ben Avon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ben Avon's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 243 acres it covers and 2,645 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ben Avon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ben Avon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 15 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,645 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ben Avon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ben Avon's boundary and the 243 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ben Avon's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ben Avonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ben Avon's 243 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegheny County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegheny 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 Allegheny County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ben Avon's 243 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ben Avon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 243 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Ben Avon-wide figureread your own land →