Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bethlehem, 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 Bethlehem 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 Bethlehem — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bethlehem — the short answer
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 12K 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 7a is Bethlehem's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bethlehem's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bethlehem
Each reading below is measured for Bethlehem itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBethlehem runs about 215 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
MeasuredBethlehem sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Bethlehem is in
Bethlehem sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bethlehem's own centroid rather than borrowed from Northampton County.
What Grows in Bethlehem
Every plant below cleared Bethlehem's own zone 7a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bethlehem?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Bethlehem
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Bethlehem, first recorded 2015. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bethlehem
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bethlehem. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOLDS AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- SCHNECK OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ARMANDO VILLANI PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SABOS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BETHLEHEM AREA SCH DIST MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LINDEN ST DRY CLNR & TAILOR / BETHLEHEMBrownfields · 1100 ft
- BETHLEHEM AREA SCH DIST LAFAYETTE BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BASD STADIUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BETHLEHEM CITY FIRE ALARM HQUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- NORTHEAST MID SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MANNIES AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- G & C CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bethlehem'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 Bethlehem.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bethlehem
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bethlehem
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 Bethlehem
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 Bethlehem average
Your land is one point inside Bethlehem
Everything above resolves to Bethlehem as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 Bethlehem Average
Bethlehem Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Bethlehem
- ●One soil character for all of Bethlehem
- ●Frost dates read at Bethlehem's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bethlehem's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bethlehem
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bethlehem averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bethlehem — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bethlehem average
How we know this about Bethlehem
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 Bethlehem’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 Bethlehem
When does frost risk typically end in Bethlehem?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bethlehem typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Bethlehem?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bethlehem typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bethlehem?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bethlehem sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 21, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bethlehem?
The federal record around Bethlehem runs heavier than most — 2,157 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,194), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bethlehem?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bethlehem's scale — its 7a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bethlehem'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 Bethlehem’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bethlehem's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,234 acres it covers and 2,157 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bethlehem's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bethlehem's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 4 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,157 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bethlehem, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bethlehem's boundary and the 12,234 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bethlehem's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bethlehemlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bethlehem's 12,234 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 Bethlehem's 12,234 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bethlehem you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,234 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 Bethlehem-wide figureread your own land →