Gordon, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Gordon, 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 Gordon 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 Gordon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gordon — the short answer
Gordon, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 380 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 380 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 Gordon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gordon's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gordon
Each reading below is measured for Gordon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGordon runs about 195 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
MeasuredGordon 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 Gordon is in
Gordon sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gordon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Schuylkill County.
What Grows in Gordon
Every plant below cleared Gordon's own zone 6b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gordon?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Gordon
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Gordon, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gordon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gordon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC 406Nitrate · 900 ft
- UNIVERSAL FOREST PROD EASTERN COToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- UFP GORDONUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SPRING CREST FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ASHLAND AREA WATER AUTHORITYPFAS · 1.1 mi
- U.S. BUREAU OF PRISONS FCI SCHUYLKILLToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- ASHLAND REG MED CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- NORTH SCHUYLKILL SCH DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- WAL-MART DISTRIBUTION CENTER #7030Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- LUCAS CUSTOM AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- EASTERN HYDRAULIC & MACHINE INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- MDC 7030Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gordon'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 Gordon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gordon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gordon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gordon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gordon — PFAS (7 sites) and CAFO (5 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Gordon
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 Gordon average
Your land is one point inside Gordon
Everything above resolves to Gordon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 380 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 Gordon Average
Gordon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Gordon
- ●One soil character for all of Gordon
- ●Frost dates read at Gordon's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gordon's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gordon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gordon, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gordon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gordon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gordon average
How we know this about Gordon
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 Gordon’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 Gordon
When does frost risk typically end in Gordon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gordon typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Gordon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gordon typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gordon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gordon sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 13, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gordon?
The federal record around Gordon is a meaningful one — 453 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (282), the nearest Nitrate 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 Gordon?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gordon's scale — its 6b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gordon'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 Gordon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gordon's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 380 acres it covers and 453 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gordon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gordon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 27 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 453 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gordon, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gordon's boundary and the 380 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gordon's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gordonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gordon's 380 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Schuylkill County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Schuylkill 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 Schuylkill County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gordon's 380 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gordon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 380 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Gordon-wide figureread your own land →
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