Carnegie, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Carnegie, 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 Carnegie 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 Carnegie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carnegie — the short answer
Carnegie, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 7a is Carnegie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carnegie's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carnegie
Each reading below is measured for Carnegie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarnegie runs about 226 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
MeasuredCarnegie sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Carnegie is in
Carnegie sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Carnegie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegheny County.
What Grows in Carnegie
Every plant below cleared Carnegie's own zone 7a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carnegie?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Carnegie
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Carnegie, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Carnegie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carnegie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 4708Brownfields · 200 ft
- KNORRS AUTO SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SUNOCO SVC STABrownfields · 400 ft
- CARNEGIE WORK CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- VOLLMER OF AMERICABrownfields · 500 ft
- DSM MACHINERYBrownfields · 550 ft
- COGOS 773Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SUNOCO 0363 0423Brownfields · 950 ft
- SUNOCO 0363 0423Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- PRION MFG COBrownfields · 1000 ft
- NORTH STAR CHEVROLETBrownfields · 1000 ft
- GETGO 3205Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carnegie'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 Carnegie.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carnegie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carnegie
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 Carnegie
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 Carnegie average
Your land is one point inside Carnegie
Everything above resolves to Carnegie as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Carnegie Average
Carnegie Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Carnegie
- ●One soil character for all of Carnegie
- ●Frost dates read at Carnegie's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carnegie's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carnegie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carnegie, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carnegie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carnegie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carnegie average
How we know this about Carnegie
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 Carnegie’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 Carnegie
When does frost risk typically end in Carnegie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carnegie typically lands around Apr 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 Apr 22.
When is the first frost in Carnegie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carnegie typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carnegie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carnegie sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 30, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carnegie?
The federal record around Carnegie is a meaningful one — 2,780 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,315), the nearest Brownfields 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 Carnegie?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carnegie's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carnegie'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 Carnegie’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Carnegie's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,037 acres it covers and 2,780 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carnegie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carnegie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 13 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,780 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carnegie, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carnegie's boundary and the 1,037 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carnegie's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Carnegielydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carnegie's 1,037 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 Carnegie's 1,037 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carnegie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,037 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Carnegie-wide figureread your own land →