Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chestnut Hill, 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 Chestnut Hill 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 Chestnut Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chestnut Hill — the short answer
Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- 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 7a is Chestnut Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chestnut Hill's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chestnut Hill
Each reading below is measured for Chestnut Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChestnut Hill runs about 214 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
MeasuredChestnut Hill 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 Chestnut Hill is in
Chestnut Hill sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chestnut Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Northampton County.
What Grows in Chestnut Hill
Every plant below cleared Chestnut Hill's own zone 7a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chestnut Hill?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Chestnut Hill
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Chestnut Hill, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chestnut Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chestnut Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORKS TWP GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- FORKS ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EISENHARDT MILLS INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- DEICHMAN WALKER CHEVUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LEHIGH VALLEY CLNR/EASTON CITYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- FORKS TWP BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FORKS TWP MUNI BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- RAFFAELE DIP & STRIPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- WALGREENS #9994Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- MAGICS GAS & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #3617Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- MET ED EASTON OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chestnut Hill'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 Chestnut Hill.
Total Sites
1,101
within ~10 miles of Chestnut Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chestnut Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chestnut Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chestnut Hill, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 75 sites within ~10 miles of Chestnut Hill. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Chestnut Hill
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 Chestnut Hill average
Your land is one point inside Chestnut Hill
Everything above resolves to Chestnut Hill 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 Chestnut Hill Average
Chestnut Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Chestnut Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Chestnut Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Chestnut Hill's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chestnut Hill's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chestnut Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chestnut Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chestnut Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chestnut Hill average
How we know this about Chestnut Hill
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 Chestnut Hill’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 Chestnut Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Chestnut Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chestnut Hill typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Chestnut Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chestnut Hill typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chestnut Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chestnut Hill sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 22, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chestnut Hill?
The federal record around Chestnut Hill is a meaningful one — 1,101 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (611), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Chestnut Hill?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chestnut Hill's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chestnut Hill'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 Chestnut Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chestnut Hill's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,940 acres it covers and 1,101 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chestnut Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chestnut Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 5 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,101 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chestnut Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chestnut Hill's boundary and the 1,940 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chestnut Hill's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Chestnut Hilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chestnut Hill's 1,940 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Northampton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Northampton 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 Northampton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chestnut Hill's 1,940 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chestnut Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,940 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Chestnut Hill-wide figureread your own land →