Broomall, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Broomall, 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 Broomall 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 Broomall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Broomall — the short answer
Broomall, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7b is Broomall's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Broomall's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Broomall
Each reading below is measured for Broomall itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBroomall runs about 242 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
MeasuredBroomall sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Broomall is in
Broomall sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Broomall's own centroid rather than borrowed from Delaware County.
What Grows in Broomall
Every plant below cleared Broomall's own zone 7b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Broomall?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Broomall
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Broomall, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Broomall
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Broomall. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BELL OF PENNSYLVANIABrownfields · 900 ft
- SPILLERS TIRE CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FRITSCHS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FRITSCHS TEXACOBrownfields · 1600 ft
- EXXON RAS NO 20426Brownfields · 1600 ft
- EXXON RS 2 0426Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- TEXACO 100274Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PARK CTR APTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ST PIUS X CHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MARPLE TWP POLICE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LAWRENCE PARK SHOPPING CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- K MART 3149Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Broomall'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 Broomall.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Broomall
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Broomall
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Broomall
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 Broomall average
Your land is one point inside Broomall
Everything above resolves to Broomall as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Broomall Average
Broomall Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Broomall
- ●One soil character for all of Broomall
- ●Frost dates read at Broomall's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Broomall's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Broomall
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Broomall, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Broomall averages can't show:
We read public map data around Broomall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Broomall average
How we know this about Broomall
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 Broomall’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 Broomall
When does frost risk typically end in Broomall?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Broomall typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Broomall?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Broomall typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Broomall?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Broomall sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 5, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Broomall?
The federal record around Broomall runs heavier than most — 3,538 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,846), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Broomall?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Broomall's scale — its 7b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Broomall'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 Broomall’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Broomall's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,028 acres it covers and 3,538 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Broomall's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Broomall's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 19 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,538 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Broomall, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Broomall's boundary and the 2,028 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Broomall's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Broomalllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Broomall's 2,028 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Delaware County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Delaware 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 Delaware County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Broomall's 2,028 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Broomall you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,028 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Broomall-wide figureread your own land →
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