Meadowlands, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Meadowlands, 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 Meadowlands 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 Meadowlands — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Meadowlands — the short answer
Meadowlands, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 566 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 566 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 Meadowlands's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Meadowlands's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Meadowlands
Each reading below is measured for Meadowlands itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMeadowlands 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
MeasuredMeadowlands 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 Meadowlands is in
Meadowlands sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Meadowlands's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Meadowlands
Every plant below cleared Meadowlands'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 Meadowlands?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Meadowlands
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Meadowlands, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Meadowlands
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Meadowlands. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ASSOCIATION FOR RETARDED CITIZBrownfields · 950 ft
- IGS INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- R & M GRINDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TRUCK TERM MEADOWLANDS PAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CROUSE HINDS DIVToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- CROUSE HINDS DIVBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ECM TRANSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SUBURBAN PROPANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ECM TRANSPORT LLC MEADOWLANDSBrownfields · 1700 ft
- ALDERSONS TRANSMISSION SERVICEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- SHEETZ 826Brownfields · 1900 ft
- UPS FREIGHT PTGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Meadowlands'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 Meadowlands.
Total Sites
653
within ~10 miles of Meadowlands
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Meadowlands
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Meadowlands
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Meadowlands, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Meadowlands. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Meadowlands
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 Meadowlands average
Your land is one point inside Meadowlands
Everything above resolves to Meadowlands as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 566 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 Meadowlands Average
Meadowlands Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Meadowlands
- ●One soil character for all of Meadowlands
- ●Frost dates read at Meadowlands's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Meadowlands's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Meadowlands
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Meadowlands, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Meadowlands averages can't show:
We read public map data around Meadowlands — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Meadowlands average
How we know this about Meadowlands
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 Meadowlands’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 Meadowlands
When does frost risk typically end in Meadowlands?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Meadowlands typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Meadowlands?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Meadowlands typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Meadowlands?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Meadowlands sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 15, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Meadowlands?
The federal record around Meadowlands is a meaningful one — 653 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (314), the nearest Brownfields 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 Meadowlands?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Meadowlands's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Meadowlands'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 Meadowlands’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Meadowlands's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 566 acres it covers and 653 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Meadowlands's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Meadowlands's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 29 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 653 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Meadowlands, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Meadowlands's boundary and the 566 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 Meadowlands's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Meadowlandslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Meadowlands's 566 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Meadowlands's 566 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Meadowlands you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 566 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Meadowlands-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Growing region
Nearby growing guides