Blain, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Blain, 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 Blain 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 Blain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blain — the short answer
Blain, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 204 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 204 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 Blain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blain's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blain
Each reading below is measured for Blain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlain runs about 216 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
MeasuredBlain 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 Blain is in
Blain sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blain's own centroid rather than borrowed from Perry County.
What Grows in Blain
Every plant below cleared Blain's own zone 7a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blain?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Blain
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Blain, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Blain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLAIN TIRE & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- HICKORY LANE FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HICKORY LANE CAFOCAFO · 1.4 mi
- BEAVER RIDGE FARM CAFOCAFO · 1.6 mi
- TROUT BROTHERS FARMCAFO · 1.8 mi
- PLEASANT VIEW FARMS BLAINCAFO · 1.8 mi
- PE 549Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- PERRY MEADOWS CAFOCAFO · 2.5 mi
- FISHERS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- BINGERS GEN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- DAVID S. MORROW FARMCAFO · 3.1 mi
- PE 689Nitrate · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blain'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 Blain.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Blain
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blain, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Blain — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (44 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Blain
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 Blain average
Your land is one point inside Blain
Everything above resolves to Blain as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 204 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 Blain Average
Blain Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Blain
- ●One soil character for all of Blain
- ●Frost dates read at Blain's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blain's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blain, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blain averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blain average
How we know this about Blain
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 Blain’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 Blain
When does frost risk typically end in Blain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blain typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Blain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blain typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blain sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 24, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blain?
The federal record around Blain shows 91 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Blain?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blain's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blain'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 Blain’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Blain's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 204 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blain's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 7 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blain, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blain's boundary and the 204 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blain's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Blainlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blain's 204 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perry 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 Perry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blain's 204 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 204 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Blain-wide figureread your own land →
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