Elk Grove, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elk Grove, 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 Elk Grove 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 Elk Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elk Grove — the short answer
Elk Grove, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 266 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 266 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 Elk Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elk Grove's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elk Grove
Each reading below is measured for Elk Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElk Grove runs about 179 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
MeasuredElk Grove 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 Elk Grove is in
Elk Grove sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Elk Grove's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Columbia County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Elk Grove
Every plant below cleared Elk Grove's own zone 6a and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elk Grove?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Elk Grove
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Elk Grove, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Elk Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elk Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FULMERS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- LITTLE LUMBER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- RAYS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- RED ROCK AMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- RED ROCK CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS/JACKSON TWP STA 517Brownfields · 2.8 mi
- SUGARLOAF TWP SPVRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- BEAR FUEL SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- SR 487Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- BENTON FOUNDRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- BENTON FOUNDRY INCBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- BENTON FOUNDRY INCToxics Release Inventory · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elk Grove'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 Elk Grove.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Elk Grove
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elk Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elk Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elk Grove, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Elk Grove. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Elk Grove
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 Elk Grove average
Your land is one point inside Elk Grove
Everything above resolves to Elk Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 266 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 Elk Grove Average
Elk Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Elk Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Elk Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Elk Grove's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elk Grove's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elk Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elk Grove, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elk Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elk Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elk Grove average
How we know this about Elk Grove
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 Elk Grove’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 Elk Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Elk Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elk Grove typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Elk Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elk Grove typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elk Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elk Grove sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 7, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elk Grove?
The federal record around Elk Grove shows 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Elk Grove?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elk Grove's scale — its 6a band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elk Grove'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 Elk Grove’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Elk Grove's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 266 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elk Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elk Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 21 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elk Grove, the closest Brownfields record about 2.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elk Grove's boundary and the 266 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Elk Grove sits in the North Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Elk Grovelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elk Grove's 266 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Columbia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Columbia 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 Columbia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elk Grove's 266 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elk Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 266 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.4 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 Elk Grove-wide figureread your own land →
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