Monroe County, in Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Monroe County lies within the Poconos and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Monroe County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Monroe County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Monroe County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Monroe County — the short answer
Monroe County, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 389K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 389K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Monroe County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Monroe County's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Monroe County
Across a year, Monroe County accumulates about 2,320 growing degree days above 50°F, about 227 fewer than the middle Pennsylvania county — ahead of 18 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Monroe County
Across Monroe County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Lackawanna, Wellsboro, and Oquaga are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
10%
Hydric soils
11%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Monroe County
The USDA soil survey maps 46% of Monroe County as well drained — but another 53% drains differently: 25% moderately well drained, 9% somewhat excessively drained.
Lackawanna is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Wellsboro (7%) and Oquaga (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Monroe County
Each reading below is measured for Monroe County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Monroe County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Monroe County runs about pH 4.8–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMonroe County runs about 194 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMonroe County 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 Monroe County is in
Monroe County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — North Central Appalachians (71%) and Ridge and Valley (30%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Monroe County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Monroe County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 194-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile.
Is it too late to plant in Monroe County?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Monroe County
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Monroe County, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle9 documented records
- monarch butterfly1,085 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Monroe County
USGS estimates 8,119 lb of Glyphosate on Monroe County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (2,329 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,527 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Monroe County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Monroe County — 618 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Monroe County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Monroe County
Closest first, across Monroe County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCOTRUN SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BRODHEAD CREEK REG WATER AUTHPFAS · 0.9 mi
- MONROE CNTY TRANSP AUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PANGEA RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BROOKDALE ON THE LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SCOTRUN TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BAYMOR FUEL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ORION FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SS LUMBER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PENNY WISE FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BP FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CAMELBACK SKI AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Monroe County'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 Monroe County.
Sources Checked
across Monroe County
Severity Distribution
across Monroe County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Monroe County, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 8 sites across Monroe County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Monroe County
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 Monroe County average
Your land is one point inside Monroe County
Everything above resolves to Monroe County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 389K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Monroe County Average
Monroe County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Monroe County
- ●One soil character for all of Monroe County
- ●Frost dates read at Monroe County's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Monroe County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Monroe County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Monroe County, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Monroe County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Monroe County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monroe County average
How we know this about Monroe County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Monroe County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Monroe County
When does frost risk typically end in Monroe County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Monroe County typically lands around Apr 15, 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 May 6.
How long is the growing season in Monroe County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Monroe County sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 12, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Monroe County?
The federal record around Monroe County runs heavier than most — 618 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (378), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Monroe County's scale — its 6b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Monroe County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Pennsylvania's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Monroe County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Monroe County's own scale — its own ~194-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 618 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Monroe County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Monroe County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Monroe CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 618 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Monroe County's boundary and the 389,351 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Monroe County spans, North Central Appalachians the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Monroe County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Monroe County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Monroe County — the ~194 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Monroe County's 389,351 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 618 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Monroe Countyread your own land →