Carroll Valley, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Carroll Valley, 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 Carroll Valley 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 Carroll Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carroll Valley — the short answer
Carroll Valley, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Carroll Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carroll Valley's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carroll Valley
Each reading below is measured for Carroll Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarroll Valley runs about 218 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
MeasuredCarroll Valley 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 Carroll Valley is in
Carroll Valley sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Carroll Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Adams County is mostly Northern Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Carroll Valley
Every plant below cleared Carroll Valley's own zone 7a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carroll Valley?
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 7 — 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 Carroll Valley
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Carroll Valley, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Carroll Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carroll Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Unnamed Copper ProspectMining · 2400 ft
- JOSEPH MCCLEAFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JFBB SKI AREAS, INC.Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- SKI LIBERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CARROLL VALLEY RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CARROLL BORO VALLEY MUNI SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Camp RitchieMining · 1.8 mi
- RAVEN ROCK MTN COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- MID ATLANTIC SOARING ASSOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- 7 ELEVEN 40445Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- PETER SMITH PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- FAIRFIELD AREA SCH DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carroll Valley'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 Carroll Valley.
Total Sites
393
within ~10 miles of Carroll Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carroll Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carroll Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carroll Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Carroll Valley — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (142 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Carroll Valley
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 Carroll Valley average
Your land is one point inside Carroll Valley
Everything above resolves to Carroll Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Carroll Valley Average
Carroll Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Carroll Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Carroll Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Carroll Valley's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carroll Valley's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carroll Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carroll Valley, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carroll Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carroll Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carroll Valley average
How we know this about Carroll Valley
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 Carroll Valley’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 Carroll Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Carroll Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carroll Valley 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 Carroll Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carroll Valley typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carroll Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carroll Valley sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 24, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carroll Valley?
The federal record around Carroll Valley is a meaningful one — 393 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (167), the nearest Mining record about 0.5 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 Carroll Valley?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carroll Valley's scale — its 7a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carroll Valley'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 Carroll Valley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Carroll Valley's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,441 acres it covers and 393 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carroll Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carroll Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 7 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 393 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carroll Valley, the closest Mining record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carroll Valley's boundary and the 3,441 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Carroll Valley sits in the Blue Ridge — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Carroll Valleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carroll Valley's 3,441 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carroll Valley's 3,441 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carroll Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,441 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.5 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 Carroll Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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