Big Beaver, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Big Beaver, 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 Big Beaver 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 Big Beaver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Big Beaver — the short answer
Big Beaver, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 11K 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)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 11K 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 Big Beaver's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Beaver's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Beaver
Each reading below is measured for Big Beaver itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBig Beaver runs about 202 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
MeasuredBig Beaver 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 Big Beaver is in
Big Beaver sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Big Beaver's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beaver County.
What Grows in Big Beaver
Every plant below cleared Big Beaver's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Big Beaver?
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 Nov 2 — 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 Big Beaver
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Big Beaver, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Big Beaver
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Beaver. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOMEWOOD MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PA TURNPIKE FACILITY HOMEWOOD MAINTENANCEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- BIG BEAVER BORO GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WAMPUM HARDWARE COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- HARSCO METALS - KOPPELToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- BIG BEAVER BORO MUNI BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BEAVER FALLS MUNI AUTH EASTVALE TRMT PLTBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- FORMER MCCLAIN PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- AGHOG PITTSBURGH CO INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- INTL MILL SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- BIG BEAR OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PENN STATE SPECIAL METALS LLCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Big Beaver'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 Big Beaver.
Total Sites
544
within ~10 miles of Big Beaver
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Big Beaver
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Beaver
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Big Beaver, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Big Beaver. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Big Beaver
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 Big Beaver average
Your land is one point inside Big Beaver
Everything above resolves to Big Beaver as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Big Beaver Average
Big Beaver Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Big Beaver
- ●One soil character for all of Big Beaver
- ●Frost dates read at Big Beaver's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Beaver's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Beaver
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Beaver, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Beaver averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Beaver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Beaver average
How we know this about Big Beaver
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 Big Beaver’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 Big Beaver
When does frost risk typically end in Big Beaver?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Big Beaver 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 Big Beaver?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Big Beaver typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Big Beaver?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Big Beaver sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 19, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Beaver?
The federal record around Big Beaver is a meaningful one — 544 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (318), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Big Beaver?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Big Beaver's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Big Beaver'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 Big Beaver’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Big Beaver's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,388 acres it covers and 544 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Beaver's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Big Beaver's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Nov 2 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 544 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Beaver, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Beaver's boundary and the 11,388 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Big Beaver's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Big Beaverlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Big Beaver's 11,388 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beaver County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beaver 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 Beaver County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Beaver's 11,388 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Beaver you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,388 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Big Beaver-wide figureread your own land →