Midway, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Midway, 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 Midway 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 Midway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Midway — the short answer
Midway, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 212 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 212 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 Midway's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Midway's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Midway
Each reading below is measured for Midway itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMidway runs about 210 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
MeasuredMidway 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 Midway is in
Midway sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Midway's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Midway
Every plant below cleared Midway's own zone 6b and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Midway?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Midway
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Midway, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Midway
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Midway. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ADAMS CNTY AUTO & TRUCK REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- EMECO IND FURNITURE MFGBrownfields · 750 ft
- CONEWAGO TWP ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- HIGH FOOD SERVICESBrownfields · 1100 ft
- WILDASIN ENTERPRISEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- TERRY & LAVERNE MOTORS GWCUBrownfields · 1400 ft
- TERRY & LAVERNE MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CONEWAGO TWP ADAMS CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TURKEY HILL 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RH CRAWFORD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HANOVER LANTERN INC/KINDIG LNToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- KINDIG LANE BULK PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Midway'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 Midway.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Midway
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Midway
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Midway, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Midway — CAFO (9 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (58 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Midway
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 Midway average
Your land is one point inside Midway
Everything above resolves to Midway as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 212 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 Midway Average
Midway Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Midway
- ●One soil character for all of Midway
- ●Frost dates read at Midway's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Midway's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Midway
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Midway, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Midway averages can't show:
We read public map data around Midway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Midway average
How we know this about Midway
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 Midway’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 Midway
When does frost risk typically end in Midway?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Midway typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Midway?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Midway typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Midway?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Midway sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 21, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Midway?
The federal record around Midway is a meaningful one — 653 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (326), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Midway?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Midway's scale — its 6b band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Midway'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 Midway’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Midway's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 212 acres it covers and 653 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Midway's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Midway's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 4 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 653 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Midway, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Midway's boundary and the 212 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Midway's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Midwaylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Midway's 212 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Midway's 212 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Midway you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 212 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Midway-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaMidway sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides