Effort, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Effort, 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 Effort 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 Effort — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Effort — the short answer
Effort, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Effort's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Effort's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Effort
Each reading below is measured for Effort itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEffort runs about 191 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
MeasuredEffort 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 Effort is in
Effort sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Effort's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Monroe County is mostly North Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Effort
Every plant below cleared Effort's own zone 6b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Effort?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Effort
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Effort, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Effort
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Effort. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EFFORT TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- EFFORT WOODCRAFTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- POCONO AUTOMART AUTOBODYBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SHOP N GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- RITE AID CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- VARTANIAN INDS INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- KROME CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- EFFORT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- GOWER WELL DRILLING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- XPRESS GAS & C MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- WEIS MKTS STORE 151Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BROADHEADSVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Effort'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 Effort.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Effort
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Effort
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Effort, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Effort — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (130 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Effort
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 Effort average
Your land is one point inside Effort
Everything above resolves to Effort as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Effort Average
Effort Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Effort
- ●One soil character for all of Effort
- ●Frost dates read at Effort's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Effort's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Effort
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Effort, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Effort averages can't show:
We read public map data around Effort — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Effort average
How we know this about Effort
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 Effort’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 Effort
When does frost risk typically end in Effort?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Effort typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Effort?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Effort typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Effort?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Effort sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 9, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Effort?
The federal record around Effort is a meaningful one — 191 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (130), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Effort?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Effort's scale — its 6b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Effort'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 Effort’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Effort's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,231 acres it covers and 191 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Effort's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Effort's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 23 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 191 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Effort, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Effort's boundary and the 3,231 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Effort sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Effortlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Effort's 3,231 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Effort's 3,231 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Effort you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,231 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Effort-wide figureread your own land →