Lower Burrell, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lower Burrell, 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 Lower Burrell 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 Lower Burrell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lower Burrell — the short answer
Lower Burrell, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- 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)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Lower Burrell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lower Burrell's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lower Burrell
Each reading below is measured for Lower Burrell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLower Burrell runs about 206 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
MeasuredLower Burrell 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 Lower Burrell is in
Lower Burrell sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lower Burrell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Westmoreland County.
What Grows in Lower Burrell
Every plant below cleared Lower Burrell's own zone 6b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lower Burrell?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Lower Burrell
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Lower Burrell, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lower Burrell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lower Burrell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHERWIN WILLIAMS NO 1182Brownfields · 1400 ft
- MONTGOMERY WARDBrownfields · 1800 ft
- MONTGOMERY WARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BP LOWER BURRELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SAMS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2400 ft
- NATIONAL TIRE & BATTERY #8543Brownfields · 2500 ft
- PIERRE LE MOGUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- HETRICK INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- AMERICAN HEADER PANELSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LOWER BURRELL CITY WESTMORELAND CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CITY OF LOWER BURRELLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- TIRE CORRALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lower Burrell'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 Lower Burrell.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lower Burrell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lower Burrell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lower Burrell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lower Burrell — PFAS (12 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (79 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 Lower Burrell
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 Lower Burrell average
Your land is one point inside Lower Burrell
Everything above resolves to Lower Burrell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 city 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 Lower Burrell Average
Lower Burrell Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lower Burrell
- ●One soil character for all of Lower Burrell
- ●Frost dates read at Lower Burrell's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lower Burrell's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lower Burrell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lower Burrell, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lower Burrell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lower Burrell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lower Burrell average
How we know this about Lower Burrell
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Lower Burrell’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Lower Burrell
When does frost risk typically end in Lower Burrell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lower Burrell 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 Lower Burrell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lower Burrell typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lower Burrell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lower Burrell sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 20, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lower Burrell?
The federal record around Lower Burrell is a meaningful one — 990 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (448), 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 Lower Burrell?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lower Burrell's scale — its 6b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lower Burrell'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 Lower Burrell’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lower Burrell's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,213 acres it covers and 990 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lower Burrell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lower Burrell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 3 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 990 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lower Burrell, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lower Burrell's boundary and the 7,213 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lower Burrell's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lower Burrelllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lower Burrell's 7,213 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Westmoreland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Westmoreland 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 Westmoreland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lower Burrell's 7,213 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lower Burrell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,213 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 Lower Burrell-wide figureread your own land →
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