Hilldale, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hilldale, 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 Hilldale 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 Hilldale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hilldale — the short answer
Hilldale, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 524 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 524 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 Hilldale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hilldale's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hilldale
Each reading below is measured for Hilldale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHilldale runs about 215 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
MeasuredHilldale 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 Hilldale is in
Hilldale sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hilldale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Luzerne County.
What Grows in Hilldale
Every plant below cleared Hilldale's own zone 6b and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hilldale?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 6 — 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 Hilldale
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Hilldale, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hilldale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hilldale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GIOMBONIS SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- COREYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- LT DUDDY ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ROCKFORDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- MERLINOS FLORAL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RIVERVIEW MANORUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AMER SILK MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PENN STATE BEVERAGE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JOHN DULSKY GEN CONTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MORANS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WILKES BARRE AREA VOCATIONAL TECH SCHBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- WILLIAMS, JACK TIRE CO INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hilldale'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 Hilldale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hilldale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hilldale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hilldale, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 681 sites within ~10 miles of Hilldale. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hilldale
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 Hilldale average
Your land is one point inside Hilldale
Everything above resolves to Hilldale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 524 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 Hilldale Average
Hilldale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hilldale
- ●One soil character for all of Hilldale
- ●Frost dates read at Hilldale's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hilldale's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hilldale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hilldale, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hilldale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hilldale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hilldale average
How we know this about Hilldale
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 Hilldale’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 Hilldale
When does frost risk typically end in Hilldale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hilldale 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 Hilldale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hilldale typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hilldale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hilldale sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 23, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hilldale?
The federal record around Hilldale runs heavier than most — 1,105 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (681), 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 Hilldale?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hilldale's scale — its 6b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hilldale'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 Hilldale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hilldale's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 524 acres it covers and 1,105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hilldale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hilldale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 6 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hilldale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hilldale's boundary and the 524 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hilldale's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hilldalelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hilldale's 524 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 Hilldale's 524 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hilldale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 524 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 Hilldale-wide figureread your own land →
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