Benson, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Benson, 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 Benson 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 Benson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Benson — the short answer
Benson, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 227 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 227 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 6a is Benson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Benson's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Benson
Each reading below is measured for Benson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBenson runs about 192 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
MeasuredBenson sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Benson is in
Benson sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Benson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Benson
Every plant below cleared Benson's own zone 6a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Benson?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 27 — 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 Benson
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Benson, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Benson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Benson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOLSOPPLE FEED MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- JET BEER DISTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FORMER GAS STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ALEXANDER MILL SERVICES INC/STONY CREEK PLTToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- ALEXANDER MILL SERVICES INC/STONY CREEK PLTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- DAVIDSVILLE FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- E CLIFFORD STUTZMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ADVANCED CUTTING SYSBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- WJAC RADIO STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WYANDTS ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BRANTS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- JOHNSTOWN REGIONAL ENERGY - SOUTHERN ALLEGHENIESBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Benson'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 Benson.
Total Sites
537
within ~10 miles of Benson
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Benson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Benson
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 Benson
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 Benson average
Your land is one point inside Benson
Everything above resolves to Benson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 227 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 Benson Average
Benson Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Benson
- ●One soil character for all of Benson
- ●Frost dates read at Benson's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Benson's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Benson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Benson, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Benson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Benson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Benson average
How we know this about Benson
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 Benson’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 Benson
When does frost risk typically end in Benson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Benson 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 Benson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Benson typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Benson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Benson sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 13, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Benson?
The federal record around Benson is a meaningful one — 537 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (301), 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 Benson?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Benson's scale — its 6a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Benson'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 Benson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Benson's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 227 acres it covers and 537 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Benson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Benson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 27 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 537 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Benson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Benson's boundary and the 227 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Benson's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bensonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Benson's 227 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Benson's 227 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Benson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 227 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 Benson-wide figureread your own land →