Lake Winola, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Lake Winola, 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 Lake Winola 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 Lake Winola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Winola — the short answer
Lake Winola, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 986 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 986 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 6a is Lake Winola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Winola's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Winola
Each reading below is measured for Lake Winola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Winola runs about 190 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLake Winola sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Lake Winola is in
Lake Winola sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Winola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wyoming County.
What Grows in Lake Winola
Every plant below cleared Lake Winola's own zone 6a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Winola?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Lake Winola
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Lake Winola, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Winola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Winola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PUMP N PANTRY 010Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MEIXNERS GARAGEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- WY 77Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- RONCO MACHINE & RIGGINGBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- HAWKS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WY 80Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- OVERFIELD TWPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- WY 79Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- WY 73Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- WY 66Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- OLD JOES TEXACOBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- LUMBER YDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Winola'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 Lake Winola.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Winola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Winola
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Winola, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 120 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Winola. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Lake Winola
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 Lake Winola average
Your land is one point inside Lake Winola
Everything above resolves to Lake Winola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 986 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 Lake Winola Average
Lake Winola Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lake Winola
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Winola
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Winola's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Winola's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Winola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Winola, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Winola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Winola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Winola average
How we know this about Lake Winola
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 Lake Winola’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 Lake Winola
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Winola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Winola typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Lake Winola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Winola typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Winola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Winola sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 10, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Winola?
The federal record around Lake Winola is a meaningful one — 342 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (153), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Lake Winola?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Winola's scale — its 6a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Winola'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 Lake Winola’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Winola's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 986 acres it covers and 342 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Winola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Winola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 24 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 342 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Winola, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Winola's boundary and the 986 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Winola's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lake Winolalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Winola's 986 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wyoming County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wyoming 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 Wyoming County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Winola's 986 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Winola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 986 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Lake Winola-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaLake Winola sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides