Espy, 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 Espy, 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 Espy 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 Espy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Espy — the short answer
Espy, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 575 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- 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
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 575 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 Espy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Espy's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Espy
Each reading below is measured for Espy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEspy runs about 202 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEspy 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 Espy is in
Espy sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Espy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Columbia County.
What Grows in Espy
Every plant below cleared Espy's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Espy?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Espy
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Espy, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Espy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Espy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEIBYS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 750 ft
- SUNOCO 0831 0443Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- U HAUL CTR BLOOMSBURGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- RENCO HOME & SPORTS CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ALEXANDER FAMILY PONTIAC BUICK GMC TRUCKSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- LIBERTY CHEVROLET & CADDYBrownfields · 2500 ft
- NICHOLS 41Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LIBERTY CHEVROLET CADILLAC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- EILEEN & DON BRIDENSTINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SHEETZ STORE NO 213Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- LAWTON PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SCOTT TWP COLUMBIA CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Espy'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 Espy.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Espy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Espy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Espy, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Espy — CAFO (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (199 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Espy
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 Espy average
Your land is one point inside Espy
Everything above resolves to Espy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 575 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 Espy Average
Espy Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Espy
- ●One soil character for all of Espy
- ●Frost dates read at Espy's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Espy's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Espy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Espy, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Espy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Espy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Espy average
How we know this about Espy
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 Espy’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 Espy
When does frost risk typically end in Espy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Espy typically lands around Apr 9, 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 Apr 30.
When is the first frost in Espy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Espy 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 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Espy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Espy sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 14, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Espy?
The federal record around Espy is a meaningful one — 324 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (199), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Espy?
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 Espy's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Espy'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 Espy’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Espy's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 575 acres it covers and 324 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Espy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Espy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 28 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 324 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Espy, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Espy's boundary and the 575 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Espy's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Espylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Espy's 575 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 Espy's 575 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Espy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 575 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Espy-wide figureread your own land →
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