Leola, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Leola, 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 Leola 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 Leola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leola — the short answer
Leola, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Leola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leola's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leola
Each reading below is measured for Leola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeola 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
MeasuredLeola 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 Leola is in
Leola sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lancaster County.
What Grows in Leola
Every plant below cleared Leola'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 Leola?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Leola
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Leola, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Leola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROSS TECHNOLOGY CORPBrownfields · 1800 ft
- ROSS TECHNOLOGY CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- WM CARTER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SHIPLEY LEOLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CONESTOGA VALLEY MID SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SHIPLEY OIL COMPANYBrownfields · 2100 ft
- LEOLA HEATING CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- COLEBROOK TERRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- LEOLA ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- LEOLA SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GETTYMART 437Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HM STAUFFER & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leola'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 Leola.
Total Sites
2,326
within ~10 miles of Leola
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leola
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leola, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Leola — CAFO (46 sites) and Nitrate (616 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Leola
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 Leola average
Your land is one point inside Leola
Everything above resolves to Leola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Leola Average
Leola Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Leola
- ●One soil character for all of Leola
- ●Frost dates read at Leola's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leola's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leola, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leola average
How we know this about Leola
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 Leola’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 Leola
When does frost risk typically end in Leola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leola typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Leola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leola typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leola sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 27, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leola?
The federal record around Leola is a meaningful one — 2,326 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,071), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Leola?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leola's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leola'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 Leola’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Leola's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,845 acres it covers and 2,326 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 10 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,326 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leola, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leola's boundary and the 3,845 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 Leola's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Leolalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leola's 3,845 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lancaster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lancaster 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 Lancaster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leola's 3,845 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,845 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Leola-wide figureread your own land →