Dickson City, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dickson City, 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 Dickson City 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 Dickson City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dickson City — the short answer
Dickson City, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Dickson City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dickson City's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dickson City
Each reading below is measured for Dickson City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDickson City runs about 204 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
MeasuredDickson City 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 Dickson City is in
Dickson City sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dickson City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lackawanna County.
What Grows in Dickson City
Every plant below cleared Dickson City's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dickson City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Dickson City
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Dickson City, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dickson City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dickson City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ASPEN DENTALBrownfields · 1000 ft
- PEP BOYS 10 SCRANTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HONDA NEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- PEP BOYSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- PENSKE AUTO CENTERBrownfields · 1000 ft
- TARGET STORE T1474Brownfields · 1500 ft
- CVS PHARMACY NO 16806Brownfields · 1500 ft
- PA AMER WATER CO LAKE SCRANTONPFAS · 0.5 mi
- KMART 3047Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- WEGMANS FOOD MARKET NO 76Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- WAL MART SUPERCENTER 1884Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE #4118Brownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dickson City'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 Dickson City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dickson City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dickson City
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 Dickson City
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 Dickson City average
Your land is one point inside Dickson City
Everything above resolves to Dickson City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Dickson City Average
Dickson City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Dickson City
- ●One soil character for all of Dickson City
- ●Frost dates read at Dickson City's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dickson City's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dickson City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dickson City, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dickson City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dickson City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dickson City average
How we know this about Dickson City
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 Dickson City’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 Dickson City
When does frost risk typically end in Dickson City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dickson City typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Dickson City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dickson City typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dickson City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dickson City sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 16, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dickson City?
The federal record around Dickson City runs heavier than most — 899 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (495), 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 Dickson City?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dickson City's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dickson City'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 Dickson City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dickson City's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,069 acres it covers and 899 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dickson City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dickson City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 30 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 899 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dickson City, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dickson City's boundary and the 3,069 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dickson City's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dickson Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dickson City's 3,069 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lackawanna County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lackawanna 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 Lackawanna County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dickson City's 3,069 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dickson City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,069 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 Dickson City-wide figureread your own land →
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