Deer Lake, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Deer Lake, 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 Deer Lake 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 Deer Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deer Lake — the short answer
Deer Lake, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 281 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 281 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 Deer Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deer Lake's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deer Lake
Each reading below is measured for Deer Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeer Lake runs about 203 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
MeasuredDeer Lake 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 Deer Lake is in
Deer Lake sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Deer Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Schuylkill County.
What Grows in Deer Lake
Every plant below cleared Deer Lake's own zone 7a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deer Lake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Deer Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Deer Lake, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Deer Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deer Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC 197Nitrate · 550 ft
- HENRY B STEELE & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JOHN KRAMERS MOBIL SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- J MARLIN ERNST & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DIXON FESSLER USABrownfields · 0.6 mi
- DIXON FESSLER USAToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- STAR GAS STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PA DOT FORMERLY M & S GAS & MINI MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SC 641Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- WEST BRUNSWICK TWP SCHUYLKILL CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SHALMET CORPBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SHALMET CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deer Lake'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 Deer Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deer Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deer Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deer Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Deer Lake — CAFO (18 sites) and Superfund (19 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Deer Lake
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 Deer Lake average
Your land is one point inside Deer Lake
Everything above resolves to Deer Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 281 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 Deer Lake Average
Deer Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Deer Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Deer Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Deer Lake's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deer Lake's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deer Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deer Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deer Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deer Lake average
How we know this about Deer Lake
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 Deer Lake’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 Deer Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Deer Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Lake typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Deer Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Lake typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deer Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deer Lake sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 14, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deer Lake?
The federal record around Deer Lake is a meaningful one — 523 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (292), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Deer Lake?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deer Lake's scale — its 7a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deer Lake'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 Deer Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Deer Lake's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 281 acres it covers and 523 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deer Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deer Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 28 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 523 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deer Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deer Lake's boundary and the 281 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deer Lake's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Deer Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deer Lake's 281 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Schuylkill County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Schuylkill 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 Schuylkill County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deer Lake's 281 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deer Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 281 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Deer Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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