Mill Creek, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mill Creek, 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 Mill Creek 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 Mill Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mill Creek — the short answer
Mill Creek, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 193 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 193 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 Mill Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mill Creek's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mill Creek
Each reading below is measured for Mill Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMill Creek runs about 212 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
MeasuredMill Creek 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 Mill Creek is in
Mill Creek sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mill Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Huntingdon County.
What Grows in Mill Creek
Every plant below cleared Mill Creek's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mill Creek?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Mill Creek
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Mill Creek, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mill Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mill Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WABASH RRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- KWIK FILL S0063 250Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- BIG VALLEY CONCRETE MILL CREEK FACUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HU 54Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- Quarry 4134Mining · 2.1 mi
- US SILICA/MAPLETON DEPOT PLTBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- Trench 4133Mining · 2.6 mi
- U. S. Rt. 22 Roadcut ProspectMining · 2.8 mi
- Motel 22 Drill HoleMining · 2.8 mi
- MARTIN GEN STORE 227Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Conrail Outcrop OccurrenceMining · 3.1 mi
- MAPLETON FARM & GARDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mill Creek'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 Mill Creek.
Total Sites
184
within ~10 miles of Mill Creek
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mill Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mill Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Mill Creek
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 Mill Creek average
Your land is one point inside Mill Creek
Everything above resolves to Mill Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 193 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 Mill Creek Average
Mill Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mill Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Mill Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Mill Creek's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mill Creek's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mill Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mill Creek, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mill Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mill Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mill Creek average
How we know this about Mill Creek
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 Mill Creek’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 Mill Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Mill Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mill Creek typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Mill Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mill Creek typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mill Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mill Creek sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 22, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mill Creek?
The federal record around Mill Creek shows 184 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mill Creek?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mill Creek's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mill Creek'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 Mill Creek’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mill Creek's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 193 acres it covers and 184 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mill Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mill Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 5 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 184 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mill Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mill Creek's boundary and the 193 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mill Creek's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mill Creeklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mill Creek's 193 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Huntingdon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mill Creek's 193 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mill Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 193 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Mill Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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