Hiller, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hiller, 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 Hiller 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 Hiller — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hiller — the short answer
Hiller, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- 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
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Hiller's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hiller's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hiller
Each reading below is measured for Hiller itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHiller runs about 208 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
MeasuredHiller 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 Hiller is in
Hiller sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hiller's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fayette County is mostly Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hiller
Every plant below cleared Hiller's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hiller?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Hiller
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Hiller, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hiller
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hiller. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HILLER GAS & TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- HBC BARGE INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- SUNOCO 0363 4128Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SUNOCO SVC STABrownfields · 0.8 mi
- HEARTLAND FABRICATION LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- HEARTLAND FABRICATION LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- SOUTH BROWNSVILLE YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BROWNSVILLE BUS LINESBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- BROWNSVILLE OPR CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- IMPICCINI BUS LINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- YEARDIE AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER NO 4501Brownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hiller'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 Hiller.
Total Sites
409
within ~10 miles of Hiller
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hiller
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hiller
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hiller, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Hiller. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Hiller
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 Hiller average
Your land is one point inside Hiller
Everything above resolves to Hiller as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Hiller Average
Hiller Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hiller
- ●One soil character for all of Hiller
- ●Frost dates read at Hiller's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hiller's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hiller
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hiller, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hiller averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hiller — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hiller average
How we know this about Hiller
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 Hiller’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 Hiller
When does frost risk typically end in Hiller?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hiller typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Hiller?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hiller 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 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hiller?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hiller sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 19, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hiller?
The federal record around Hiller is a meaningful one — 409 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (243), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Hiller?
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 Hiller's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hiller'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 Hiller’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hiller's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,105 acres it covers and 409 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hiller's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hiller's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 2 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 409 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hiller, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hiller's boundary and the 1,105 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hiller sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hillerlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hiller's 1,105 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hiller's 1,105 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hiller you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,105 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Hiller-wide figureread your own land →
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