Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Ebensburg, 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 Ebensburg 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 Ebensburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ebensburg — the short answer
Ebensburg, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 5b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5b is Ebensburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ebensburg's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ebensburg
Each reading below is measured for Ebensburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEbensburg runs about 168 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
MeasuredEbensburg sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Ebensburg is in
Ebensburg sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ebensburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cambria County.
What Grows in Ebensburg
Every plant below cleared Ebensburg's own zone 5b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ebensburg?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Ebensburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Ebensburg, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ebensburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ebensburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MASTRINC AUTO RPRBrownfields · 1100 ft
- EBENSBURG CCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KEYSTONE REST & TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FARMERS EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KNOPP & KLATT EXCAV & CONCRETEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MAURICE FARABAUGHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CAMBRIA SLOPE RDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SUNOCO 0363 2908Brownfields · 1200 ft
- EBENSBURG GULF SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DAMIN PRINTINGBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CAMBRIA CO COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ebensburg'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 Ebensburg.
Total Sites
322
within ~10 miles of Ebensburg
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ebensburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ebensburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ebensburg, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Ebensburg. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ebensburg
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 Ebensburg average
Your land is one point inside Ebensburg
Everything above resolves to Ebensburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Ebensburg Average
Ebensburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ebensburg
- ●One soil character for all of Ebensburg
- ●Frost dates read at Ebensburg's scale: May 2 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ebensburg's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ebensburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ebensburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ebensburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ebensburg average
How we know this about Ebensburg
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 Ebensburg’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 Ebensburg
When does frost risk typically end in Ebensburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ebensburg typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Ebensburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ebensburg typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ebensburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ebensburg sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Oct 3, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ebensburg?
The federal record around Ebensburg is a meaningful one — 322 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (187), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Ebensburg?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ebensburg's scale — its 5b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ebensburg'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 Ebensburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ebensburg's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,073 acres it covers and 322 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ebensburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ebensburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 17 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 322 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ebensburg, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ebensburg's boundary and the 1,073 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ebensburg's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ebensburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ebensburg's 1,073 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cambria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cambria 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 Cambria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ebensburg's 1,073 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ebensburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,073 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 Ebensburg-wide figureread your own land →