Howard, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Howard, 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 Howard 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 Howard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Howard — the short answer
Howard, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 232 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 232 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 Howard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Howard's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Howard
Each reading below is measured for Howard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHoward runs about 200 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
MeasuredHoward 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 Howard is in
Howard sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Howard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Centre County.
What Grows in Howard
Every plant below cleared Howard's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Howard?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Howard
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Howard, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Howard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Howard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOMBOYS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- HOWARD ELEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- UNI MART 04094Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CE 121Nitrate · 1700 ft
- CONFER TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BALD EAGLE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LIBERTY TWP MUNI BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CE 358Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- CE 632Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- CE 609Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- Lambs Gap Occurrence No. 7Mining · 3.1 mi
- SUBURBAN PROPANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Howard'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 Howard.
Total Sites
240
within ~10 miles of Howard
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Howard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Howard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Howard, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Howard — PFAS (3 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Howard
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 Howard average
Your land is one point inside Howard
Everything above resolves to Howard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 232 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 Howard Average
Howard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Howard
- ●One soil character for all of Howard
- ●Frost dates read at Howard's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Howard's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Howard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Howard, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Howard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Howard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Howard average
How we know this about Howard
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 Howard’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 Howard
When does frost risk typically end in Howard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Howard typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Howard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Howard typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Howard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Howard sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 17, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Howard?
The federal record around Howard is a meaningful one — 240 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (111), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Howard?
From about Oct 1 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 Oct 31 (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 Oct 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Howard's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Howard'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 Howard’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Howard's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 232 acres it covers and 240 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Howard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Howard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 31 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 240 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Howard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Howard's boundary and the 232 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Howard's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Howardlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Howard's 232 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 Howard's 232 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Howard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 232 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Howard-wide figureread your own land →
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