Edinboro, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Edinboro, 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 Edinboro 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 Edinboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Edinboro — the short answer
Edinboro, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- 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 6a is Edinboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Edinboro's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Edinboro
Each reading below is measured for Edinboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEdinboro runs about 193 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
MeasuredEdinboro 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 Edinboro is in
Edinboro sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Edinboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in Edinboro
Every plant below cleared Edinboro's own zone 6a and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Edinboro?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Edinboro
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Edinboro, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Edinboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Edinboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TDY INDUSTRIES LLC DBA FORMER TELEDYNE PENN UNIONBrownfields · 950 ft
- PENN UNION CORP/EDINBOROToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- PENN UNION CORP/EDINBOROBrownfields · 1100 ft
- STORE 42Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- EDINBORO UNIVERSITY OF PABrownfields · 2000 ft
- SUNOCO SVC STABrownfields · 2000 ft
- GETGO 3435Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #5095Brownfields · 2100 ft
- FORMER BOYNE BP 333 BP 57433Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- EDINBORO BORO WTPBrownfields · 2100 ft
- EDINBORO CLNR/EDINBOROBrownfields · 2100 ft
- KWIK FILL M0033 170Brownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Edinboro'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 Edinboro.
Total Sites
168
within ~10 miles of Edinboro
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Edinboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Edinboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Edinboro, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Edinboro. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Edinboro
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 Edinboro average
Your land is one point inside Edinboro
Everything above resolves to Edinboro 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 Edinboro Average
Edinboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Edinboro
- ●One soil character for all of Edinboro
- ●Frost dates read at Edinboro's scale: Apr 24 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Edinboro's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Edinboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Edinboro, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Edinboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Edinboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Edinboro average
How we know this about Edinboro
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 Edinboro’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 Edinboro
When does frost risk typically end in Edinboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Edinboro typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Edinboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Edinboro typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Edinboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Edinboro sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 20, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Edinboro?
The federal record around Edinboro is a meaningful one — 168 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), 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 Edinboro?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Edinboro's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Edinboro'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 Edinboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Edinboro's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,464 acres it covers and 168 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Edinboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Edinboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Nov 3 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 168 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Edinboro, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Edinboro's boundary and the 1,464 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Edinboro's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Edinborolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Edinboro's 1,464 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Erie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Erie 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 Erie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Edinboro's 1,464 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Edinboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,464 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 Edinboro-wide figureread your own land →
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