Marlin, 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, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Marlin, 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 Marlin 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 Marlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marlin — the short answer
Marlin, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 82 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 82 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 Marlin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marlin's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marlin
Each reading below is measured for Marlin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarlin runs about 201 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
MeasuredMarlin 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 Marlin is in
Marlin sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marlin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Schuylkill County.
What Grows in Marlin
Every plant below cleared Marlin's own zone 7a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marlin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Marlin
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Marlin, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Marlin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marlin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TREDEGAR FILM PROD INC/POTTSVILLEToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- TREDEGAR FILM PROD INC/POTTSVILLEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SCHUYLKILL CNTY APTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KANE STEEL CO OF PAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ADVANSIX RESINS & CHEMICALS LLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- ADVANSIX RESINS & CHEMICALS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- TURKEY HILL 229Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 2600 W MARKET ST POTTSVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 2147Brownfields · 2600 ft
- LOSCH BOILER SALES & SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SHEETZ STORE NO 258Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- SHEETZ 258Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marlin'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 Marlin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marlin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marlin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marlin, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Marlin. 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.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Marlin
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 Marlin average
Your land is one point inside Marlin
Everything above resolves to Marlin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 82 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 Marlin Average
Marlin Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Marlin
- ●One soil character for all of Marlin
- ●Frost dates read at Marlin's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marlin's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marlin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marlin, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marlin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marlin average
How we know this about Marlin
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 Marlin’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 Marlin
When does frost risk typically end in Marlin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marlin typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Marlin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marlin typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marlin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marlin sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 13, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marlin?
The federal record around Marlin is a meaningful one — 547 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (310), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Marlin?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marlin's scale — its 7a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marlin'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 Marlin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Marlin's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 82 acres it covers and 547 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marlin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marlin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 27 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 547 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marlin, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marlin's boundary and the 82 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marlin's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Marlinlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marlin's 82 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Schuylkill County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Schuylkill 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 Schuylkill County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marlin's 82 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marlin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 82 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Marlin-wide figureread your own land →
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