Mill Village, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mill Village, 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 Village 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 Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mill Village — the short answer
Mill Village, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 588 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 588 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 6a is Mill Village's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mill Village's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mill Village
Each reading below is measured for Mill Village itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMill Village runs about 185 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
MeasuredMill Village sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Village is in
Mill Village sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mill Village's own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in Mill Village
Every plant below cleared Mill Village's own zone 6a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mill Village?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Mill Village
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Mill Village, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mill Village
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mill Village. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MILL VILLAGE BULK PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- NORTH EAST TIRE & AUTO SALESBrownfields · 2400 ft
- MILLRUN AUTO SVCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LEBOEUF TWP ERIE CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ER 91Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- ER 7001Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- HUNTER HDWRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- WATERFORD QWI RCCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- WHEELERTOWN PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- RUSSELL STANDARD CORPBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- ER 1626Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- SHEARERS FOODS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mill Village'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 Village.
Total Sites
187
within ~10 miles of Mill Village
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mill Village
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mill Village
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mill Village, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mill Village — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Mill Village
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 Village average
Your land is one point inside Mill Village
Everything above resolves to Mill Village as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 588 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 Village Average
Mill Village Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mill Village
- ●One soil character for all of Mill Village
- ●Frost dates read at Mill Village's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mill Village's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mill Village
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mill Village, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mill Village averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mill Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mill Village average
How we know this about Mill Village
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 Village’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 Village
When does frost risk typically end in Mill Village?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mill Village typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Mill Village?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mill Village typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mill Village?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mill Village sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 16, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mill Village?
The federal record around Mill Village shows 187 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Village?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mill Village's scale — its 6a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mill Village'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 Village’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mill Village's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 588 acres it covers and 187 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mill Village's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mill Village's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 30 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 187 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mill Village, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mill Village's boundary and the 588 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mill Village's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mill Villagelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mill Village's 588 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Erie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Erie 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 Erie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mill Village's 588 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mill Village you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 588 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Village-wide figureread your own land →