Drifting, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Drifting, 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 Drifting 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 Drifting — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Drifting — the short answer
Drifting, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 348 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 348 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 6a is Drifting's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Drifting's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Drifting
Each reading below is measured for Drifting itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDrifting runs about 184 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
MeasuredDrifting sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Drifting is in
Drifting sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Drifting's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clearfield County.
What Grows in Drifting
Every plant below cleared Drifting's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Drifting?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Drifting
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Drifting, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Drifting
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Drifting. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RJ'S GARAGEBrownfields · 2100 ft
- DURA KANBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- DOROTHY HESS SULLIVANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JOHN E KEPHARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- WW ENGINE & SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- JOHN KEPHART SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- PATRICKS AUTOBODYBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- PAUL GABLE & SONS ELECUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- KWIK FILL M202 226Brownfields · 3.5 mi
- EXXON MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- KYLERTOWN EXXON 21Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- KWIK FILL KYLERTOWN M0202 226Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Drifting'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 Drifting.
Total Sites
76
within ~10 miles of Drifting
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Drifting
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Drifting
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Drifting, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Drifting. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Drifting
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 Drifting average
Your land is one point inside Drifting
Everything above resolves to Drifting as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 348 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 Drifting Average
Drifting Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Drifting
- ●One soil character for all of Drifting
- ●Frost dates read at Drifting's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Drifting's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Drifting
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Drifting, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Drifting averages can't show:
We read public map data around Drifting — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Drifting average
How we know this about Drifting
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 Drifting’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 Drifting
When does frost risk typically end in Drifting?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Drifting typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Drifting?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Drifting typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Drifting?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Drifting sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 10, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Drifting?
The federal record around Drifting is a meaningful one — 76 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Drifting?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Drifting's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Drifting'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 Drifting’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Drifting's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 348 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Drifting's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Drifting's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 24 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Drifting, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Drifting's boundary and the 348 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Drifting's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Driftinglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Drifting's 348 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clearfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clearfield 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 Clearfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Drifting's 348 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Drifting you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 348 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Drifting-wide figureread your own land →
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