Blanchard, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Blanchard, 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 Blanchard 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 Blanchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blanchard — the short answer
Blanchard, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 914 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 914 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 Blanchard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blanchard's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blanchard
Each reading below is measured for Blanchard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlanchard 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
MeasuredBlanchard 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 Blanchard is in
Blanchard sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blanchard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Centre County.
What Grows in Blanchard
Every plant below cleared Blanchard's own zone 6b and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blanchard?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Blanchard
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Blanchard, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Blanchard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blanchard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PUMP STA 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CE 122Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- BEECH CREEKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PUMP STA 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LYKENS MKT BEECH CREEKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- EAGLE VALLEY SPORTING GOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CN 481Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- ARMSTRONG WORLD INDBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- CN 492Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- CE 383Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- GLOSSNER CONCRETEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- COREY M. WATKINS TRUCKINGToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blanchard'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 Blanchard.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blanchard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blanchard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blanchard, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 74 sites within ~10 miles of Blanchard. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Blanchard
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 Blanchard average
Your land is one point inside Blanchard
Everything above resolves to Blanchard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 914 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 Blanchard Average
Blanchard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Blanchard
- ●One soil character for all of Blanchard
- ●Frost dates read at Blanchard's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blanchard's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blanchard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blanchard, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blanchard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blanchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blanchard average
How we know this about Blanchard
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 Blanchard’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 Blanchard
When does frost risk typically end in Blanchard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blanchard typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Blanchard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blanchard typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blanchard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blanchard sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 15, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blanchard?
The federal record around Blanchard is a meaningful one — 263 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (132), 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 Blanchard?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blanchard's scale — its 6b band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blanchard'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 Blanchard’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Blanchard's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 914 acres it covers and 263 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blanchard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blanchard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 29 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 263 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blanchard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blanchard's boundary and the 914 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blanchard's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Blanchardlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blanchard's 914 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Centre County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Centre 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 Centre County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blanchard's 914 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blanchard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 914 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 Blanchard-wide figureread your own land →
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