Dunlevy, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Dunlevy, 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 Dunlevy 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 Dunlevy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dunlevy — the short answer
Dunlevy, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 340 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 340 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 Dunlevy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dunlevy's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dunlevy
Each reading below is measured for Dunlevy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDunlevy runs about 216 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
MeasuredDunlevy 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 Dunlevy is in
Dunlevy sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dunlevy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Dunlevy
Every plant below cleared Dunlevy's own zone 6b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dunlevy?
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 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 7 — 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 Dunlevy
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Dunlevy, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dunlevy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dunlevy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AUTH OF BORO OF CHARLEROIPFAS · 25 ft
- HOSTESS BAKERIESBrownfields · 1200 ft
- BRAUNS HOSTESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CAMPBELL TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, INC.Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- WASHINGTON TWP FAYETTE CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ANDREWS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FORMER BARTOLOZZI GAS STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PUMP STA 6Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ALLENPORT MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PUMP STA 5Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WASHINGTON & JEFFERSON COLLEGEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SANDVIK ROCK TOOLS INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dunlevy'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 Dunlevy.
Total Sites
550
within ~10 miles of Dunlevy
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dunlevy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dunlevy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dunlevy, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Dunlevy. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Dunlevy
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 Dunlevy average
Your land is one point inside Dunlevy
Everything above resolves to Dunlevy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 340 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 Dunlevy Average
Dunlevy Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Dunlevy
- ●One soil character for all of Dunlevy
- ●Frost dates read at Dunlevy's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dunlevy's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dunlevy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dunlevy, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dunlevy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dunlevy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dunlevy average
How we know this about Dunlevy
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 Dunlevy’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 Dunlevy
When does frost risk typically end in Dunlevy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dunlevy 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 Dunlevy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dunlevy typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dunlevy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dunlevy sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 24, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dunlevy?
The federal record around Dunlevy is a meaningful one — 550 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (310), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dunlevy?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dunlevy's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dunlevy'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 Dunlevy’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dunlevy's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 340 acres it covers and 550 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dunlevy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dunlevy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 7 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 550 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dunlevy, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dunlevy's boundary and the 340 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dunlevy's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dunlevylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dunlevy's 340 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dunlevy's 340 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dunlevy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 340 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dunlevy-wide figureread your own land →
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