Harleigh, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Harleigh, 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 Harleigh 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 Harleigh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Harleigh — the short answer
Harleigh, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 366 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- 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
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 366 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 Harleigh's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harleigh's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Harleigh
Each reading below is measured for Harleigh itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHarleigh runs about 197 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
MeasuredHarleigh 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 Harleigh is in
Harleigh sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Harleigh's own centroid rather than borrowed from Luzerne County.
What Grows in Harleigh
Every plant below cleared Harleigh's own zone 6b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Harleigh?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Harleigh
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Harleigh, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Harleigh
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Harleigh. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TURKEY HILL 131Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NIAGARA BOTTLING LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- FARMERS CO OP DAIRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PEN MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LONZETTA PLUMBING & HEATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY NO 1572Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- 1181 N CHURCH ST PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FAIRWAY SUBARU DBABrownfields · 0.7 mi
- HAZLETON VALEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TURKEY HILL STORE 289Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WIENCHES E Z MOTORSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- HAZLETON CHRYSLER PLYMOUTH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Harleigh'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 Harleigh.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Harleigh
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Harleigh
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Harleigh, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Harleigh — Superfund (8 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (38 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Harleigh
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 Harleigh average
Your land is one point inside Harleigh
Everything above resolves to Harleigh as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 366 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 Harleigh Average
Harleigh Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Harleigh
- ●One soil character for all of Harleigh
- ●Frost dates read at Harleigh's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harleigh's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Harleigh
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harleigh, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harleigh averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harleigh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harleigh average
How we know this about Harleigh
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 Harleigh’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 Harleigh
When does frost risk typically end in Harleigh?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harleigh typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Harleigh?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Harleigh 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 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Harleigh?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harleigh sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 13, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Harleigh?
The federal record around Harleigh runs heavier than most — 455 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (250), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Harleigh?
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 Harleigh's scale — its 6b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harleigh'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 Harleigh’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Harleigh's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 366 acres it covers and 455 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harleigh's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Harleigh's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 27 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 455 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Harleigh, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Harleigh's boundary and the 366 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Harleigh's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Harleighlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Harleigh's 366 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Luzerne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Luzerne 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 Luzerne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Harleigh's 366 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Harleigh you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 366 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Harleigh-wide figureread your own land →
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