Hawley, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Hawley, 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 Hawley 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 Hawley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hawley — the short answer
Hawley, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 372 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 372 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 Hawley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hawley's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hawley
Each reading below is measured for Hawley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHawley runs about 168 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
MeasuredHawley 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 Hawley is in
Hawley sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Hawley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Wayne County is mostly Northern Allegheny Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hawley
Every plant below cleared Hawley's own zone 6a and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hawley?
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 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Hawley
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Hawley, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hawley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hawley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAWLEY ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- PAUPACK COAL & FUEL OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- RICKS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- FORMER NAPA AUTO PARTS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JOES SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HAWLEY ELEC SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- HAWLEY TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HAWLEY BORO BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- US POST OFC HAWLEY PA MPOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- HAWLEY SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- ERIE OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- PI 611Nitrate · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hawley'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 Hawley.
Total Sites
340
within ~10 miles of Hawley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hawley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hawley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hawley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 164 sites within ~10 miles of Hawley. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hawley
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 Hawley average
Your land is one point inside Hawley
Everything above resolves to Hawley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 372 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 Hawley Average
Hawley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hawley
- ●One soil character for all of Hawley
- ●Frost dates read at Hawley's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hawley's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hawley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hawley, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hawley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hawley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hawley average
How we know this about Hawley
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 Hawley’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 Hawley
When does frost risk typically end in Hawley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hawley 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 Hawley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hawley typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hawley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hawley sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 1, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hawley?
The federal record around Hawley is a meaningful one — 340 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (164), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hawley?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hawley's scale — its 6a band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hawley'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 Hawley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hawley's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 372 acres it covers and 340 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hawley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hawley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 15 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 340 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hawley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hawley's boundary and the 372 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hawley sits in the North Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hawleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hawley's 372 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hawley's 372 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hawley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 372 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 Hawley-wide figureread your own land →