Dunmore, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Dunmore, 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 Dunmore 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 Dunmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dunmore — the short answer
Dunmore, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- 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
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Dunmore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dunmore's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dunmore
Each reading below is measured for Dunmore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDunmore runs about 199 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
MeasuredDunmore 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 Dunmore is in
Dunmore sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dunmore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lackawanna County.
What Grows in Dunmore
Every plant below cleared Dunmore's own zone 6b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dunmore?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Dunmore
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Dunmore, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dunmore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dunmore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PA0019 DUNMOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- AUTOMATED COMPONENTSBrownfields · 650 ft
- GERTRUDE HAWK CHOCOLATES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- MARY JUBAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TIGUE STREET GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ENG DIST 4 0Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- EXIDE TECH DUNMORE PLTToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- EXIDE DUNMORE PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FAST LANE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SCRANTON III WORK CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ENG DIST 4 0 LVIH SECTION 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DUNMORE OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dunmore'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 Dunmore.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dunmore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dunmore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dunmore, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Dunmore. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Dunmore
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 Dunmore average
Your land is one point inside Dunmore
Everything above resolves to Dunmore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Dunmore Average
Dunmore Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Dunmore
- ●One soil character for all of Dunmore
- ●Frost dates read at Dunmore's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dunmore's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dunmore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dunmore, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dunmore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dunmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dunmore average
How we know this about Dunmore
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 Dunmore’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 Dunmore
When does frost risk typically end in Dunmore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dunmore typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Dunmore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dunmore 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 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dunmore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dunmore sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 13, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dunmore?
The federal record around Dunmore runs heavier than most — 900 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (518), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dunmore?
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 Dunmore's scale — its 6b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dunmore'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 Dunmore’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dunmore's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,708 acres it covers and 900 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dunmore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dunmore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 27 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 900 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dunmore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dunmore's boundary and the 5,708 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dunmore's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dunmorelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dunmore's 5,708 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 Dunmore's 5,708 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dunmore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,708 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Dunmore-wide figureread your own land →
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