Lightstreet, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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 Lightstreet, 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 Lightstreet 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 Lightstreet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lightstreet — the short answer
Lightstreet, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 625 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 625 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 6b is Lightstreet's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lightstreet's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lightstreet
Each reading below is measured for Lightstreet itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLightstreet runs about 198 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
MeasuredLightstreet sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Lightstreet is in
Lightstreet sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lightstreet's own centroid rather than borrowed from Columbia County.
What Grows in Lightstreet
Every plant below cleared Lightstreet's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lightstreet?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Lightstreet
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Lightstreet, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lightstreet
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lightstreet. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUICK SHOP 1Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BILLS AUTO SHOPBrownfields · 1900 ft
- JUDYS GAS & GROCERIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- DAN & DIAN COFFINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ORANGE TWP COLUMBIA CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PPL BLOOMSBURG SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CO 22Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- DONALD E REICHART LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- REICHARTS GARAGEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 7 ELEVEN 40407Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- EILEEN & DON BRIDENSTINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- LIBERTY CHEVROLET CADILLAC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lightstreet'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 Lightstreet.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lightstreet
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lightstreet
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lightstreet, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 209 sites within ~10 miles of Lightstreet. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lightstreet
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 Lightstreet average
Your land is one point inside Lightstreet
Everything above resolves to Lightstreet as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 625 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 Lightstreet Average
Lightstreet Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lightstreet
- ●One soil character for all of Lightstreet
- ●Frost dates read at Lightstreet's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lightstreet's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lightstreet
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lightstreet, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lightstreet averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lightstreet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lightstreet average
How we know this about Lightstreet
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 Lightstreet’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 Lightstreet
When does frost risk typically end in Lightstreet?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lightstreet typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Lightstreet?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lightstreet typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lightstreet?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lightstreet sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 12, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lightstreet?
The federal record around Lightstreet is a meaningful one — 338 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (209), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Lightstreet?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lightstreet's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lightstreet'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 Lightstreet’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lightstreet's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 625 acres it covers and 338 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lightstreet's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lightstreet's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 26 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 338 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lightstreet, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lightstreet's boundary and the 625 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lightstreet's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lightstreetlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lightstreet's 625 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Columbia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Columbia 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 Columbia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lightstreet's 625 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lightstreet you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 625 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Lightstreet-wide figureread your own land →
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