Forest Hills, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Forest Hills, 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 Forest Hills 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 Forest Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Forest Hills — the short answer
Forest Hills, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- 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 Forest Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Forest Hills's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Forest Hills
Each reading below is measured for Forest Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredForest Hills runs about 220 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
MeasuredForest Hills 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 Forest Hills is in
Forest Hills sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Forest Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegheny County.
What Grows in Forest Hills
Every plant below cleared Forest Hills's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Forest Hills?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Forest Hills
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Forest Hills, first recorded 2014. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Forest Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Forest Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOREST HILLS BORO ALLEGHENY CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CARSON AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- AUTOMOTIVE MARKET REPORTBrownfields · 2400 ft
- FOREST HILLS TRANSFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- STOP & SAVE CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- LEE MANSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- YOCCAS AUTO BAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BRADDOCK CATH CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BENDIK FORDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BENDIK FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BRADDOCK HILLS BOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GIANT EAGLE 0077Brownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Forest Hills'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 Forest Hills.
Total Sites
2,851
within ~10 miles of Forest Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
14 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Forest Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Forest Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Forest Hills
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 Forest Hills average
Your land is one point inside Forest Hills
Everything above resolves to Forest Hills 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 Forest Hills Average
Forest Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Forest Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Forest Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Forest Hills's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Forest Hills's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Forest Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Forest Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Forest Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Forest Hills average
How we know this about Forest Hills
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 Forest Hills’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 Forest Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Forest Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Forest Hills typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Forest Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Forest Hills typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Forest Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Forest Hills sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 26, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Forest Hills?
The federal record around Forest Hills is a meaningful one — 2,851 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,378), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Forest Hills?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Forest Hills's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Forest Hills'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 Forest Hills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Forest Hills's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,002 acres it covers and 2,851 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Forest Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Forest Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 9 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,851 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Forest Hills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Forest Hills's boundary and the 1,002 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Forest Hills's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Forest Hillslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Forest Hills's 1,002 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegheny County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegheny 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 Allegheny County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Forest Hills's 1,002 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Forest Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,002 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Forest Hills-wide figureread your own land →