Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gettysburg, 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 Gettysburg 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 Gettysburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gettysburg — the short answer
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- 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 7a is Gettysburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gettysburg's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gettysburg
Each reading below is measured for Gettysburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGettysburg runs about 215 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
MeasuredGettysburg sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Gettysburg is in
Gettysburg sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gettysburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Gettysburg
Every plant below cleared Gettysburg's own zone 7a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gettysburg?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Gettysburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Gettysburg, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gettysburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gettysburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 7 ELEVEN 19021Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ICE HOUSE SQUAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- H & H PONTIACUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- AD 241Nitrate · 550 ft
- GEORGE W OLINGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- GETTYSBURG CTL OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ADAMS CNTY NATL BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- JC CLEANERSSuperfund · 800 ft
- JC CLEANERSBrownfields · 800 ft
- ADAMS CNTY COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- DAVIES INS AGENCYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- DIRECT TO YOU GAS STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gettysburg'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 Gettysburg.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gettysburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gettysburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gettysburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gettysburg — CAFO (8 sites) and Nitrate (130 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Gettysburg
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 Gettysburg average
Your land is one point inside Gettysburg
Everything above resolves to Gettysburg 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 Gettysburg Average
Gettysburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Gettysburg
- ●One soil character for all of Gettysburg
- ●Frost dates read at Gettysburg's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gettysburg's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gettysburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gettysburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gettysburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gettysburg average
How we know this about Gettysburg
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 Gettysburg’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 Gettysburg
When does frost risk typically end in Gettysburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gettysburg typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Gettysburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gettysburg typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gettysburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gettysburg sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 23, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gettysburg?
The federal record around Gettysburg runs heavier than most — 455 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (216), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gettysburg?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gettysburg's scale — its 7a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gettysburg'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 Gettysburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gettysburg's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,063 acres it covers and 455 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gettysburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gettysburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 6 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 455 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gettysburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gettysburg's boundary and the 1,063 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gettysburg's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gettysburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gettysburg's 1,063 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gettysburg's 1,063 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gettysburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,063 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Gettysburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaGettysburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides