Leetsdale, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Leetsdale, 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 Leetsdale 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 Leetsdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leetsdale — the short answer
Leetsdale, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 639 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 639 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 Leetsdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leetsdale's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leetsdale
Each reading below is measured for Leetsdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeetsdale runs about 225 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
MeasuredLeetsdale 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 Leetsdale is in
Leetsdale sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leetsdale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegheny County.
What Grows in Leetsdale
Every plant below cleared Leetsdale's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leetsdale?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Leetsdale
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Leetsdale, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Leetsdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leetsdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLEARWATER INTERNATIONAL LLCToxics Release Inventory · 50 ft
- RUDD EQUIPMENT COBrownfields · 1000 ft
- SOHIO OIL CO (SITE # 57056)Brownfields · 1000 ft
- MULTI SERVICE SUPPLY DIVBrownfields · 1000 ft
- AIRCO SPECIALTY GASESBrownfields · 1000 ft
- ADVO SYSTEMBrownfields · 1000 ft
- ATLANTIC PRECIOUS METAL RESOURCES INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- SCHROEDER INDUSTRIES LLCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- NATIONAL OILWELL VARCO LEETSDALE FACToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- NATIONAL OILWELL VARCO RIG SOLUTIONS/LEETSDALEToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- LEETSDALE WWTPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ARNOLD & DONNA FHEIGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leetsdale'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 Leetsdale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leetsdale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leetsdale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leetsdale, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Leetsdale — PFAS (13 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (85 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Leetsdale
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 Leetsdale average
Your land is one point inside Leetsdale
Everything above resolves to Leetsdale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 639 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 Leetsdale Average
Leetsdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Leetsdale
- ●One soil character for all of Leetsdale
- ●Frost dates read at Leetsdale's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leetsdale's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leetsdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leetsdale, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leetsdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leetsdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leetsdale average
How we know this about Leetsdale
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 Leetsdale’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 Leetsdale
When does frost risk typically end in Leetsdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leetsdale typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Leetsdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leetsdale typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leetsdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leetsdale sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 29, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leetsdale?
The federal record around Leetsdale is a meaningful one — 1,234 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (558), 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 Leetsdale?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leetsdale's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leetsdale'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 Leetsdale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Leetsdale's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 639 acres it covers and 1,234 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leetsdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leetsdale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 12 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,234 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leetsdale, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leetsdale's boundary and the 639 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leetsdale's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Leetsdalelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leetsdale's 639 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegheny County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegheny 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 Allegheny County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leetsdale's 639 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leetsdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 639 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 Leetsdale-wide figureread your own land →