Bunola, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bunola, 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 Bunola 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 Bunola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bunola — the short answer
Bunola, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 712 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 712 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 Bunola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bunola's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bunola
Each reading below is measured for Bunola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBunola runs about 222 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
MeasuredBunola 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 Bunola is in
Bunola sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bunola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegheny County.
What Grows in Bunola
Every plant below cleared Bunola's own zone 6b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bunola?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Bunola
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Bunola, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bunola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bunola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAROUSEL MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- EVAN FORD HOME PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- UNIVAR USA INC/BUNOLAToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- UNIVAR USA INC/BUNOLABrownfields · 2400 ft
- UNIVAR USA BUNOLA BRANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DYER IND INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MITCHELL POWER STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FORMER DOT & SANDYS LIGHTHOUSE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ALLEGHENY ENERGY SUPPLY CO - WEST PENN POWER - MITCHELLToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- MON VIEW MININGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- EQUITRANS INCORPORATED HARTSONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- FLOREFFE STATIONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bunola'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 Bunola.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bunola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bunola
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Bunola
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 Bunola average
Your land is one point inside Bunola
Everything above resolves to Bunola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 712 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 Bunola Average
Bunola Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bunola
- ●One soil character for all of Bunola
- ●Frost dates read at Bunola's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bunola's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bunola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bunola, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bunola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bunola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bunola average
How we know this about Bunola
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 Bunola’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 Bunola
When does frost risk typically end in Bunola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bunola typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Bunola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bunola typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bunola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bunola sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 28, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bunola?
The federal record around Bunola is a meaningful one — 1,187 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (609), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Bunola?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bunola's scale — its 6b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bunola'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 Bunola’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bunola's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 712 acres it covers and 1,187 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bunola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bunola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 11 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,187 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bunola, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bunola's boundary and the 712 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bunola's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bunolalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bunola's 712 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegheny County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegheny 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 Allegheny County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bunola's 712 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bunola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 712 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bunola-wide figureread your own land →