Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ellwood City, 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 Ellwood City 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 Ellwood City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ellwood City — the short answer
Ellwood City, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- 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 6b is Ellwood City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ellwood City's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ellwood City
Each reading below is measured for Ellwood City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEllwood City runs about 199 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
MeasuredEllwood City 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 Ellwood City is in
Ellwood City sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ellwood City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lawrence County is mostly Erie Drift Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ellwood City
Every plant below cleared Ellwood City's own zone 6b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ellwood City?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Ellwood City
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Ellwood City, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ellwood City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ellwood City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BARNES RICHARD A DMDBrownfields · 900 ft
- USX IND PARK OF ELLWOOD CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ELLWOOD CITY IRON & WIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FORMER HARRYS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SHEETZ NO 763Brownfields · 1200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #5710Brownfields · 1300 ft
- B & B EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- H & H GEN TIREBrownfields · 1700 ft
- ELLWOOD CITY BORO GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- RONALD A HAZEN PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SOLOMONS DRY CLEANINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 7 ELEVEN 36133Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ellwood City'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 Ellwood City.
Total Sites
575
within ~10 miles of Ellwood City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ellwood City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ellwood City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ellwood City, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Ellwood City. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ellwood City
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 Ellwood City average
Your land is one point inside Ellwood City
Everything above resolves to Ellwood City 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 Ellwood City Average
Ellwood City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ellwood City
- ●One soil character for all of Ellwood City
- ●Frost dates read at Ellwood City's scale: Apr 17 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ellwood City's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ellwood City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ellwood City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ellwood City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ellwood City average
How we know this about Ellwood City
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 Ellwood City’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 Ellwood City
When does frost risk typically end in Ellwood City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ellwood City typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Ellwood City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ellwood City typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ellwood City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ellwood City sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 19, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ellwood City?
The federal record around Ellwood City is a meaningful one — 575 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (325), 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 Ellwood City?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ellwood City's scale — its 6b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ellwood City'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 Ellwood City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ellwood City's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,487 acres it covers and 575 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ellwood City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ellwood City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Nov 2 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 575 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ellwood City, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ellwood City's boundary and the 1,487 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ellwood City sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ellwood Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ellwood City's 1,487 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ellwood City's 1,487 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ellwood City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,487 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 Ellwood City-wide figureread your own land →
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