Hereford, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hereford, 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 Hereford 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 Hereford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hereford — the short answer
Hereford, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 634 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 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 634 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 Hereford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hereford's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hereford
Each reading below is measured for Hereford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHereford runs about 211 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
MeasuredHereford 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 Hereford is in
Hereford sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Hereford's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Berks County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hereford
Every plant below cleared Hereford's own zone 7a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hereford?
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 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Hereford
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Hereford, first recorded 2015. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hereford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hereford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HEREFORD ESTATES MHPUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- WEBERS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- STAUFFER HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TURKEY HILL 124Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TURKEY HILL 912-124Brownfields · 1100 ft
- HEREFORD TWP BERKS CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- S & D CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LE 518Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- MATHESON TRI-GASToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- MATHESON TRI-GASBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- FABRICATION CONCEPTS INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Montgomery County MineMining · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hereford'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 Hereford.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hereford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hereford
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Hereford
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 Hereford average
Your land is one point inside Hereford
Everything above resolves to Hereford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 634 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 Hereford Average
Hereford Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Hereford
- ●One soil character for all of Hereford
- ●Frost dates read at Hereford's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hereford's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hereford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hereford, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hereford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hereford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hereford average
How we know this about Hereford
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 Hereford’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 Hereford
When does frost risk typically end in Hereford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hereford 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 Hereford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hereford typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hereford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hereford sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 19, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hereford?
The federal record around Hereford runs heavier than most — 1,129 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (490), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Hereford?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hereford's scale — its 7a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hereford'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 Hereford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hereford's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 634 acres it covers and 1,129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hereford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hereford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 2 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hereford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hereford's boundary and the 634 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hereford sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Herefordlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hereford's 634 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berks County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berks 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 Berks County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hereford's 634 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hereford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 634 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 Hereford-wide figureread your own land →
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