Cross Creek, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Cross Creek, 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 Cross Creek 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 Cross Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cross Creek — the short answer
Cross Creek, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 232 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 232 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 6b is Cross Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cross Creek's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cross Creek
Each reading below is measured for Cross Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCross Creek runs about 207 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
MeasuredCross Creek 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 Cross Creek is in
Cross Creek sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cross Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Cross Creek
Every plant below cleared Cross Creek's own zone 6b and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cross Creek?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Cross Creek
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Cross Creek, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cross Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cross Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YEAGER TRANSTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- JAKE SCHNEIDERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CARTER WOODCRAFT CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MAIN SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- EAP INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- SLOVAN TIPPLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- CROSS CREEK TWP WASHINGTON CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- A C DELLOVADE INC WAREHOUSEBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- TESTA MACHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- LANGELOTH METALLURGICAL COToxics Release Inventory · 2.6 mi
- LANGELOTH METALLURGICAL COBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- PANHANDLE FOOD SALES INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cross Creek'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 Cross Creek.
Total Sites
253
within ~10 miles of Cross Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cross Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cross Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cross Creek, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Cross Creek. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Cross Creek
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 Cross Creek average
Your land is one point inside Cross Creek
Everything above resolves to Cross Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 232 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 Cross Creek Average
Cross Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Cross Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Cross Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Cross Creek's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cross Creek's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cross Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cross Creek, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cross Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cross Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cross Creek average
How we know this about Cross Creek
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 Cross Creek’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 Cross Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Cross Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cross Creek typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Cross Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cross Creek typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cross Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cross Creek sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 17, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cross Creek?
The federal record around Cross Creek is a meaningful one — 253 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (142), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Cross Creek?
From about Oct 1 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 Oct 31 (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 Oct 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cross Creek's scale — its 6b band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cross Creek'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 Cross Creek’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cross Creek's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 232 acres it covers and 253 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cross Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cross Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 31 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 253 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cross Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cross Creek's boundary and the 232 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cross Creek's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cross Creeklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cross Creek's 232 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cross Creek's 232 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cross Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 232 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Cross Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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