Millwood, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Millwood, 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 Millwood 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 Millwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Millwood — the short answer
Millwood, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 397 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 397 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 Millwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Millwood's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Millwood
Each reading below is measured for Millwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMillwood 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
MeasuredMillwood 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 Millwood is in
Millwood sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Millwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Westmoreland County.
What Grows in Millwood
Every plant below cleared Millwood's own zone 6b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Millwood?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Millwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Millwood, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Millwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Millwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMITH BUS DERRY LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- DERRY BORO STPUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 1336 SR 217Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- VARGULISH JOHNBrownfields · 1400 ft
- KALUMETALS INC -DERRY FACILITYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- ROBERT GRAY ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DERRY MUNI WATER AUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DERRY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- COLES CEMETERY ASSOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- KEYSTONE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DERRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ESTATE OF ROY F BERGMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Millwood'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 Millwood.
Total Sites
419
within ~10 miles of Millwood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Millwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Millwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Millwood, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 31 sites within ~10 miles of Millwood. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Millwood
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 Millwood average
Your land is one point inside Millwood
Everything above resolves to Millwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 397 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 Millwood Average
Millwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Millwood
- ●One soil character for all of Millwood
- ●Frost dates read at Millwood's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Millwood's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Millwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Millwood, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Millwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Millwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Millwood average
How we know this about Millwood
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 Millwood’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 Millwood
When does frost risk typically end in Millwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Millwood typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Millwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Millwood typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Millwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Millwood sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 17, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Millwood?
The federal record around Millwood is a meaningful one — 419 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (202), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Millwood?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Millwood's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Millwood'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 Millwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Millwood's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 397 acres it covers and 419 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Millwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Millwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 31 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 419 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Millwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Millwood's boundary and the 397 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Millwood's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Millwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Millwood's 397 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Westmoreland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Westmoreland 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 Westmoreland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Millwood's 397 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Millwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 397 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 Millwood-wide figureread your own land →
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