Montgomery County, in Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Montgomery County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Montgomery 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 Montgomery County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Montgomery County — the short answer
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 309K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 309K 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 7a is Montgomery County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Montgomery County's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One county, several growing seasons
Montgomery County's hard-freeze record runs about 215 days between freezes — but that is the county-wide average, and several towns inside it carry a markedly different season in their own 30-year record: Bala Cynwyd at about 246 days (against the county's ~215).
Those are measured records, not estimates. If you garden in one of these pockets, plant against your own town's season rather than the county's ~215-day average.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Only held-out towns carrying their own record are named — a town with no record of its own is absent rather than estimated, and a county with nothing qualifying shows no spread at all.
Heat in Montgomery County
Across a year, Montgomery County accumulates about 3,294 growing degree days above 50°F, about 747 more than the middle Pennsylvania county — ahead of 64 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 Montgomery County
Across Montgomery County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Readington, Penn, and Reaville are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.1, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
16%
Hydric soils
10%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Montgomery County
The USDA soil survey maps 28% of Montgomery County as moderately well drained — but another 34% drains differently: 18% well drained, 9% somewhat poorly drained.
Readington is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Penn (12%) and Reaville (10%).
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 Montgomery County
Each reading below is measured for Montgomery 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 Montgomery County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Montgomery County runs about pH 5.8–6.1, 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
MeasuredMontgomery County runs about 215 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
MeasuredMontgomery County 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 Montgomery County is in
Montgomery County sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Montgomery County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Montgomery County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 215-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 Montgomery 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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Montgomery County
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Montgomery County, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle31 documented records
- monarch butterfly720 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Montgomery County
USGS estimates 10,897 lb of Glyphosate on Montgomery County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (4,246 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (3,192 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 Montgomery County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Montgomery County — 3,646 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 45 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
Closest first, across Montgomery County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MG 551Nitrate · 1200 ft
- MILLER PUMP SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MEADOWOOD RETIREMENT COMMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MG 1713Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- EVANSBURG STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MG 1726Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- NORTH PENN WATER AUTHORITYPFAS · 1.3 mi
- NORTH WALES WATER AUTHORITYPFAS · 1.3 mi
- PA AMERICAN NORRISTOWNPFAS · 1.3 mi
- EXXON RAS NO 25807Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- WORCESTER ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SKIPPACK TWP MUNI AUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Montgomery 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 Montgomery County.
Sources Checked
across Montgomery County
Severity Distribution
across Montgomery County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Montgomery County, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 45 sites across Montgomery County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Montgomery 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 Montgomery County average
Your land is one point inside Montgomery County
Everything above resolves to Montgomery County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 309K 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 Montgomery County Average
Montgomery County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Montgomery County
- ●One soil character for all of Montgomery County
- ●Frost dates read at Montgomery County's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Montgomery County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Montgomery County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Montgomery County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Montgomery County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Montgomery County average
How we know this about Montgomery 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 Montgomery County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Montgomery County
When does frost risk typically end in Montgomery County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Montgomery County typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Montgomery County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Montgomery County sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 22, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Montgomery County?
The federal record around Montgomery County runs heavier than most — 3,646 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,981), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Montgomery County's scale — its 7a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Montgomery 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 Montgomery County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Montgomery County's own scale — its own ~215-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 3,646 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Montgomery County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Montgomery County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Montgomery CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 3,646 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Montgomery County's boundary and the 309,079 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Montgomery County sitting wholly inside the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Montgomery County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Montgomery 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 Montgomery County — the ~215 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 Montgomery County's 309,079 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 3,646 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 Montgomery Countyread your own land →