Homewood, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Homewood, 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 Homewood 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 Homewood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Homewood — the short answer
Homewood, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 108 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 108 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 Homewood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Homewood's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Homewood
Each reading below is measured for Homewood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHomewood runs about 203 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
MeasuredHomewood 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 Homewood is in
Homewood sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Homewood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beaver County.
What Grows in Homewood
Every plant below cleared Homewood's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Homewood?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Homewood
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Homewood, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Homewood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Homewood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEAVER FALLS MUNI AUTH EASTVALE TRMT PLTBrownfields · 600 ft
- PSC METALS INC/KOPPELBrownfields · 1100 ft
- FORMER MCCLAIN PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KEPHART TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CROWN ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WIZARDS TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PA TURNPIKE FACILITY HOMEWOOD MAINTENANCEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- HOMEWOOD MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BIG BEAVER BORO GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GRANDVIEW CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- EGTS BEAVER RIVER GATE SITEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- INTL MILL SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Homewood'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 Homewood.
Total Sites
582
within ~10 miles of Homewood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Homewood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Homewood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Homewood, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 57 sites within ~10 miles of Homewood. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Homewood
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 Homewood average
Your land is one point inside Homewood
Everything above resolves to Homewood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 108 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 Homewood Average
Homewood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Homewood
- ●One soil character for all of Homewood
- ●Frost dates read at Homewood's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Homewood's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Homewood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Homewood, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Homewood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Homewood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Homewood average
How we know this about Homewood
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 Homewood’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 Homewood
When does frost risk typically end in Homewood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Homewood typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Homewood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Homewood typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Homewood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Homewood sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 21, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Homewood?
The federal record around Homewood is a meaningful one — 582 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (322), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Homewood?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Homewood's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Homewood'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 Homewood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Homewood's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 108 acres it covers and 582 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Homewood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Homewood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 4 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 582 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Homewood, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Homewood's boundary and the 108 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Homewood's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Homewoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Homewood's 108 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beaver County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beaver 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 Beaver County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Homewood's 108 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Homewood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 108 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Homewood-wide figureread your own land →