Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Delaware Water Gap, 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 Delaware Water Gap 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 Delaware Water Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Delaware Water Gap — the short answer
Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- 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 6b is Delaware Water Gap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Delaware Water Gap's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Delaware Water Gap
Each reading below is measured for Delaware Water Gap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDelaware Water Gap runs about 196 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
MeasuredDelaware Water Gap 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 Delaware Water Gap is in
Delaware Water Gap sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Delaware Water Gap's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Monroe County is mostly North Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Delaware Water Gap
Every plant below cleared Delaware Water Gap's own zone 6b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Delaware Water Gap?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Delaware Water Gap
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Delaware Water Gap, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Delaware Water Gap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Delaware Water Gap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MO 199Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- MO 189Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- DELAWARE WATER GAP TOLL BRIDGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- IMBT, HERBERT R INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- NP 584Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- DELAWARE WATER GAPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MARTINS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- DELAWARE BORO WATER GAP TOWN HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- LAIRD TECHNOLOGIESToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- FUEL ON WATER GAP CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- POCONO GAS STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LAIRD TECHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Delaware Water Gap'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 Delaware Water Gap.
Total Sites
564
within ~10 miles of Delaware Water Gap
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Delaware Water Gap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Delaware Water Gap
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Delaware Water Gap, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Delaware Water Gap. 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 Delaware Water Gap
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 Delaware Water Gap average
Your land is one point inside Delaware Water Gap
Everything above resolves to Delaware Water Gap 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 Delaware Water Gap Average
Delaware Water Gap Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Delaware Water Gap
- ●One soil character for all of Delaware Water Gap
- ●Frost dates read at Delaware Water Gap's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Delaware Water Gap's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Delaware Water Gap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Delaware Water Gap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Delaware Water Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Delaware Water Gap average
How we know this about Delaware Water Gap
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 Delaware Water Gap’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 Delaware Water Gap
When does frost risk typically end in Delaware Water Gap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Delaware Water Gap typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Delaware Water Gap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Delaware Water Gap typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Delaware Water Gap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Delaware Water Gap sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 13, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Delaware Water Gap?
The federal record around Delaware Water Gap is a meaningful one — 564 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (331), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Delaware Water Gap?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Delaware Water Gap's scale — its 6b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Delaware Water Gap'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 Delaware Water Gap’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Delaware Water Gap's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,235 acres it covers and 564 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Delaware Water Gap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Delaware Water Gap's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 27 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 564 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Delaware Water Gap, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Delaware Water Gap's boundary and the 1,235 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Delaware Water Gap sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Delaware Water Gaplydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Delaware Water Gap's 1,235 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Delaware Water Gap's 1,235 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Delaware Water Gap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,235 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Delaware Water Gap-wide figureread your own land →