Houserville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Houserville, 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 Houserville 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 Houserville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Houserville — the short answer
Houserville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 701 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
- 701 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 Houserville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Houserville's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Houserville
Each reading below is measured for Houserville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHouserville 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
MeasuredHouserville 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 Houserville is in
Houserville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Houserville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Centre County.
What Grows in Houserville
Every plant below cleared Houserville'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 Houserville?
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 Houserville
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Houserville, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Houserville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Houserville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CE 681Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- KWIK FILL M0094Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- KWIK FILL M 94Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CENTRE CONCRETE STATE COLLEGE PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CONST YDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MIERLY VOLKSWAGONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LEITZINGER IMPORTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SHEETZ 150Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DL AUTO INC/COLLEGE TWPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- RUETGERS ORGANICS CO/STATE COLLEGEToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- RUETGERS ORGANICS CO/STATE COLLEGEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- RUETGERS ORGANICS CO/STATE COLLEGESuperfund · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Houserville'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 Houserville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Houserville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Houserville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Houserville, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Houserville. 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 Houserville
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 Houserville average
Your land is one point inside Houserville
Everything above resolves to Houserville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 701 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 Houserville Average
Houserville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Houserville
- ●One soil character for all of Houserville
- ●Frost dates read at Houserville's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Houserville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Houserville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Houserville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Houserville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Houserville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Houserville average
How we know this about Houserville
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 Houserville’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 Houserville
When does frost risk typically end in Houserville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Houserville 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 Houserville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Houserville 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 Houserville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Houserville 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 Houserville?
The federal record around Houserville is a meaningful one — 533 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (243), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Houserville?
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 Houserville's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Houserville'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 Houserville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Houserville's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 701 acres it covers and 533 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Houserville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Houserville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 2 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 533 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Houserville, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Houserville's boundary and the 701 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Houserville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Houservillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Houserville's 701 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Centre County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Centre 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 Centre County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Houserville's 701 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Houserville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 701 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Houserville-wide figureread your own land →
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