Brockway, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, 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 Brockway, 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 Brockway 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 Brockway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brockway — the short answer
Brockway, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 758 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 758 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 6a is Brockway's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brockway's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brockway
Each reading below is measured for Brockway itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrockway runs about 173 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
MeasuredBrockway sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Brockway is in
Brockway sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brockway's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Brockway
Every plant below cleared Brockway's own zone 6a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brockway?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Brockway
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Brockway, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brockway
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brockway. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALLTEL PA NORTH DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MARTINOS BI LOUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BROCKWAY AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SUPERIOR WASTE SVC OF PAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PARIS CLEANERSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- PHOENIX SINTERED METALS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- SHEETZ STORE NO 146Brownfields · 1400 ft
- BROCKWAY STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SHEETZ 146Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BROCKWAY AUTO CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BROCKWAY SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- OWENS-BROCKWAY GLASS CONTAINER INC PLT 18Brownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brockway'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 Brockway.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brockway
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brockway
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brockway, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Brockway — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (19 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Brockway
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 Brockway average
Your land is one point inside Brockway
Everything above resolves to Brockway as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 758 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 Brockway Average
Brockway Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Brockway
- ●One soil character for all of Brockway
- ●Frost dates read at Brockway's scale: May 1 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brockway's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brockway
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brockway, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brockway averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brockway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brockway average
How we know this about Brockway
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 Brockway’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 Brockway
When does frost risk typically end in Brockway?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brockway typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Brockway?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brockway typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brockway?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brockway sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Oct 7, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brockway?
The federal record around Brockway is a meaningful one — 224 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Brockway?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brockway's scale — its 6a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brockway'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 Brockway’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brockway's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 758 acres it covers and 224 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brockway's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brockway's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 21 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 224 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brockway, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brockway's boundary and the 758 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brockway's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brockwaylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brockway's 758 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brockway's 758 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brockway you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 758 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 Brockway-wide figureread your own land →
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