Clay, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Clay, 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 Clay 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 Clay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clay — the short answer
Clay, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- 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 Clay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clay's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clay
Each reading below is measured for Clay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClay runs about 223 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
MeasuredClay 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 Clay is in
Clay sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lancaster County.
What Grows in Clay
Every plant below cleared Clay's own zone 7a and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clay?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Clay
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Clay, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Clay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLAY ELEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- GREEN MEADOWS MOBILE HOMESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ROCK TRANSPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MIKE MARTIN DUCK OPERATIONCAFO · 2200 ft
- DALE LEES AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2500 ft
- RAYMOND WEAVER EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- LN 1066Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- PENNFIELD RITTER POULTRY DIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- E PAUL WEAVER III NUTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CLAY TWP LANCASTER CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- TIMS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- HOPELAND PO CLOISTER FLOORINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clay'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 Clay.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clay, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Clay — CAFO (36 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (72 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Clay
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 Clay average
Your land is one point inside Clay
Everything above resolves to Clay 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 Clay Average
Clay Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Clay
- ●One soil character for all of Clay
- ●Frost dates read at Clay's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clay's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clay, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clay average
How we know this about Clay
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 Clay’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 Clay
When does frost risk typically end in Clay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clay typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Clay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clay typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clay sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 26, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clay?
The federal record around Clay is a meaningful one — 1,139 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (551), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Clay?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clay's scale — its 7a band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clay'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 Clay’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Clay's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,431 acres it covers and 1,139 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 9 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clay's boundary and the 1,431 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clay's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Claylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clay's 1,431 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lancaster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lancaster 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 Lancaster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clay's 1,431 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,431 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Clay-wide figureread your own land →