Leeper, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Leeper, 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 Leeper 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 Leeper — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leeper — the short answer
Leeper, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 335 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 335 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 Leeper's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leeper's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leeper
Each reading below is measured for Leeper itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeeper runs about 181 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
MeasuredLeeper 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 Leeper is in
Leeper sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Leeper's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clarion County is mostly Western Allegheny Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Leeper
Every plant below cleared Leeper's own zone 6a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leeper?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Leeper
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Leeper, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Leeper
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leeper. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CR 173Nitrate · 50 ft
- 6700 SR 36Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- WEISERS SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CAR MATE TRAILERSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- CAR MATE TRAILERSToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- KAHLES KITCHENS/LEEPERBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FARMINGTON TWP CLARION CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WATKINS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JOES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MOORES SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- CR 724 FORMERLY cellNitrate · 2.7 mi
- KEYSTONE ENVIRO VAC SERVICES INCBrownfields · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leeper'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 Leeper.
Total Sites
52
within ~10 miles of Leeper
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leeper
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leeper
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leeper, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Leeper — Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites) and Nitrate (14 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Leeper
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 Leeper average
Your land is one point inside Leeper
Everything above resolves to Leeper as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 335 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 Leeper Average
Leeper Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Leeper
- ●One soil character for all of Leeper
- ●Frost dates read at Leeper's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leeper's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leeper
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leeper, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leeper averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leeper — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leeper average
How we know this about Leeper
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 Leeper’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 Leeper
When does frost risk typically end in Leeper?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leeper typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Leeper?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leeper typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leeper?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leeper sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 11, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leeper?
The federal record around Leeper shows 52 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (23), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Leeper?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leeper's scale — its 6a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leeper'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 Leeper’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Leeper's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 335 acres it covers and 52 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leeper's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leeper's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 25 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 52 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leeper, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leeper's boundary and the 335 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Leeper sits in the North Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Leeperlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leeper's 335 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clarion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clarion 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 Clarion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leeper's 335 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leeper you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 335 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Leeper-wide figureread your own land →
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