Bolivar, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Bolivar, 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 Bolivar 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 Bolivar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bolivar — the short answer
Bolivar, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 109 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 109 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 Bolivar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bolivar's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bolivar
Each reading below is measured for Bolivar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBolivar runs about 200 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
MeasuredBolivar 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 Bolivar is in
Bolivar sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bolivar's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Westmoreland County is mostly Western Allegheny Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bolivar
Every plant below cleared Bolivar's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bolivar?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Bolivar
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Bolivar, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bolivar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bolivar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOSEPH D LAMANTIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CLARKS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BOLIVAR HDWRUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- SIMPSON SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- LA MANTIA BEER DISTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- PEOPLES NATURAL GAS CO LLC W FAIRFIELD STABrownfields · 950 ft
- TRI COMM WATER & SEW AUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- FORMER MABELS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GARLANDS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WEST WHEATFIELD TWP EQUIP GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- IN 152Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- IN 450Nitrate · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bolivar'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 Bolivar.
Total Sites
292
within ~10 miles of Bolivar
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bolivar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bolivar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bolivar, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bolivar — PFAS (4 sites) and Nitrate (98 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Bolivar
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 Bolivar average
Your land is one point inside Bolivar
Everything above resolves to Bolivar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 109 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 Bolivar Average
Bolivar Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bolivar
- ●One soil character for all of Bolivar
- ●Frost dates read at Bolivar's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bolivar's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bolivar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bolivar, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bolivar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bolivar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bolivar average
How we know this about Bolivar
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 Bolivar’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 Bolivar
When does frost risk typically end in Bolivar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bolivar typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Bolivar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bolivar typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bolivar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bolivar sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 18, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bolivar?
The federal record around Bolivar is a meaningful one — 292 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (112), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bolivar?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bolivar's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bolivar'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 Bolivar’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bolivar's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 109 acres it covers and 292 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bolivar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bolivar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 1 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 292 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bolivar, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bolivar's boundary and the 109 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bolivar sits in the Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bolivarlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bolivar's 109 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Westmoreland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Westmoreland 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 Westmoreland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bolivar's 109 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bolivar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 109 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 Bolivar-wide figureread your own land →
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