DeSales University, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in DeSales University, 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 DeSales University 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 DeSales University — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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DeSales University — the short answer
DeSales University, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 383 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 383 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 DeSales University's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against DeSales University's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in DeSales University
Each reading below is measured for DeSales University itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeSales University runs about 212 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
MeasuredDeSales University 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 DeSales University is in
DeSales University sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at DeSales University's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lehigh County.
What Grows in DeSales University
Every plant below cleared DeSales University's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in DeSales University?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 DeSales University
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from DeSales University, first recorded 2015. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near DeSales University
Closest first, within ~10 miles of DeSales University. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DESALES UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 900 ft
- DESALES UNIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- OSSIE & SONS ELECUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FIRST STUDENT 20530Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LE 381Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- LE 543Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- HAUSMANS PRECISION WELDING INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- WEYHILL ESTATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LE 158Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- FRANKS AUTO SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LE 271Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- SOUTHERN LEHIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from DeSales University'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 DeSales University.
Total Sites
1,866
within ~10 miles of DeSales University
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of DeSales University
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of DeSales University
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in DeSales University
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 DeSales University average
Your land is one point inside DeSales University
Everything above resolves to DeSales University as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 383 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 DeSales University Average
DeSales University Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across DeSales University
- ●One soil character for all of DeSales University
- ●Frost dates read at DeSales University's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not DeSales University's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in DeSales University
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in DeSales University, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that DeSales University averages can't show:
We read public map data around DeSales University — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the DeSales University average
How we know this about DeSales University
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 DeSales University’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 DeSales University
When does frost risk typically end in DeSales University?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in DeSales University typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in DeSales University?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in DeSales University typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in DeSales University?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, DeSales University sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 20, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in DeSales University?
The federal record around DeSales University runs heavier than most — 1,866 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (972), the nearest Brownfields 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in DeSales University?
From about Oct 4 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 Nov 3 (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 Nov 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at DeSales University's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of DeSales University'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 DeSales University’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at DeSales University's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 383 acres it covers and 1,866 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- DeSales University's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- DeSales University's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 3 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,866 documented contamination sites on the federal record near DeSales University, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- DeSales University's boundary and the 383 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at DeSales University's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of DeSales Universitylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so DeSales University's 383 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lehigh County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lehigh 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 Lehigh County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among DeSales University's 383 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of DeSales University you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 383 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 DeSales University-wide figureread your own land →