Elim, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Elim, 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 Elim 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 Elim — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elim — the short answer
Elim, 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- 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 Elim's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elim's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elim
Each reading below is measured for Elim itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElim 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
MeasuredElim 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 Elim is in
Elim sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elim's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cambria County.
What Grows in Elim
Every plant below cleared Elim'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 Elim?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Elim
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Elim, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Elim
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elim. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEYARMINS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BILLS AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HIRAM G ANDREWS CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- UPPER YODER TWP GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WJAC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GETGO 3612Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHMONT BORO CAMBRIA CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GIANT EAGLE 0046Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- JOHNSTOWN ARC NO 1Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- GRIMALDIS SOUTHMONT BOULEVARD SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BUTLER'S GARAGEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CL BUTLER GARAGE & SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elim'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 Elim.
Total Sites
551
within ~10 miles of Elim
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
23 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elim
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elim
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elim, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Elim. 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 Elim
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 Elim average
Your land is one point inside Elim
Everything above resolves to Elim 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 Elim Average
Elim Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Elim
- ●One soil character for all of Elim
- ●Frost dates read at Elim's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elim's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elim
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elim, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elim averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elim — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elim average
How we know this about Elim
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 Elim’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 Elim
When does frost risk typically end in Elim?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elim typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Elim?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elim typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elim?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elim sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 14, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elim?
The federal record around Elim is a meaningful one — 551 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (295), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Elim?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elim's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elim'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 Elim’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Elim's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,277 acres it covers and 551 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elim's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elim's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 28 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 551 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elim, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elim's boundary and the 1,277 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 Elim's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Elimlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elim's 1,277 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 Elim's 1,277 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elim you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,277 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Elim-wide figureread your own land →