Gray, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gray, 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 Gray 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 Gray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gray — the short answer
Gray, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 220 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 220 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 6a is Gray's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gray's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gray
Each reading below is measured for Gray itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGray runs about 170 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
MeasuredGray sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Gray is in
Gray sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gray's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Gray
Every plant below cleared Gray's own zone 6a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gray?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Gray
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Gray, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gray
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gray. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SATELLITE MAINT BLDG 097JUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- BAILEYS AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- AK COAL RESOURCES, INC. NORTH FORKToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- LAUREL VIEW COLL MTRBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- COAL JUNCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ROX COALS - MILLER MINEToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- KELSEY HAYES MTN TEST FACUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- ROBERT H MITCHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- HEAVY DUTY FRICTION GROUPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- LLOYD WATKINS AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- DUSTYS PITT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- NAIR PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gray'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 Gray.
Total Sites
321
within ~10 miles of Gray
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gray
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gray
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gray, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Gray. 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 Gray
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 Gray average
Your land is one point inside Gray
Everything above resolves to Gray as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 220 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 Gray Average
Gray Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Gray
- ●One soil character for all of Gray
- ●Frost dates read at Gray's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gray's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gray
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gray, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gray averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gray average
How we know this about Gray
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 Gray’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 Gray
When does frost risk typically end in Gray?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gray typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Gray?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gray typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gray?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gray sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 3, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gray?
The federal record around Gray is a meaningful one — 321 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (181), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Gray?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gray's scale — its 6a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gray'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 Gray’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gray's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 220 acres it covers and 321 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gray's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gray's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 17 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 321 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gray, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gray's boundary and the 220 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gray's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Graylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gray's 220 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gray's 220 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gray you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 220 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Gray-wide figureread your own land →