Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Kennett Square, 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 Kennett Square 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 Kennett Square — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kennett Square — the short answer
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 682 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 682 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 7a is Kennett Square's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kennett Square's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kennett Square
Each reading below is measured for Kennett Square itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKennett Square runs about 220 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
MeasuredKennett Square sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Kennett Square is in
Kennett Square sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kennett Square's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chester County.
What Grows in Kennett Square
Every plant below cleared Kennett Square's own zone 7a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kennett Square?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Kennett Square
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Kennett Square, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kennett Square
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kennett Square. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NVF CO/KENNETT PLTToxics Release Inventory · 450 ft
- TRI B AUTO BODY/KENNETT SQUAREBrownfields · 600 ft
- CJ CLARK RETAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- BLITTERSDORFS AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 900 ft
- TAYLOR OIL & PROPANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MICHAEL A LAWRENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TAYLOR OIL & PROPANE INCToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- CH 468Nitrate · 1300 ft
- LANDHOPE FARMS 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JAMES M & PATRICIA A DEFAZIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- KENNETT SQUARE BORO CHESTER CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- KENNETT HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kennett Square'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 Kennett Square.
Total Sites
1,758
within ~10 miles of Kennett Square
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kennett Square
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kennett Square
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kennett Square, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 716 sites within ~10 miles of Kennett Square. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Kennett Square
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 Kennett Square average
Your land is one point inside Kennett Square
Everything above resolves to Kennett Square as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 682 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 Kennett Square Average
Kennett Square Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Kennett Square
- ●One soil character for all of Kennett Square
- ●Frost dates read at Kennett Square's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kennett Square's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kennett Square
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kennett Square averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kennett Square — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kennett Square average
How we know this about Kennett Square
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 Kennett Square’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 Kennett Square
When does frost risk typically end in Kennett Square?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kennett Square typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Kennett Square?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kennett Square typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kennett Square?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kennett Square sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 25, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kennett Square?
The federal record around Kennett Square is a meaningful one — 1,758 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (716), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Kennett Square?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kennett Square's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kennett Square'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 Kennett Square’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kennett Square's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 682 acres it covers and 1,758 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kennett Square's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kennett Square's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 8 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,758 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kennett Square, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kennett Square's boundary and the 682 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kennett Square's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kennett Squarelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kennett Square's 682 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chester 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 Chester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kennett Square's 682 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kennett Square you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 682 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Kennett Square-wide figureread your own land →