Minersville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Minersville, 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 Minersville 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 Minersville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Minersville — the short answer
Minersville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 420 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 420 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 Minersville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Minersville's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Minersville
Each reading below is measured for Minersville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMinersville runs about 197 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
MeasuredMinersville 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 Minersville is in
Minersville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Minersville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Schuylkill County.
What Grows in Minersville
Every plant below cleared Minersville's own zone 7a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Minersville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 27 — 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 Minersville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Minersville, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Minersville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Minersville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MINERSVILLE MUNICIPAL WATER AUPFAS · 200 ft
- OCHS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- K & B RECYCLING LLCBrownfields · 600 ft
- FUEL UP MINERSVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- T & T AUTO SALES & SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- LEON A. REAGER AUTO REPAIR, INC.Brownfields · 700 ft
- SCHUYLKILL CNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- JAMES W QUANDEL & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- NEW ST NICHOLAS BREAKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- RUSCAVAGE AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- MINERSVILLE SEW AUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- UNITED METAL RECEPTACLE CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Minersville'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 Minersville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Minersville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Minersville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Minersville, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Minersville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Minersville
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 Minersville average
Your land is one point inside Minersville
Everything above resolves to Minersville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 420 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 Minersville Average
Minersville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Minersville
- ●One soil character for all of Minersville
- ●Frost dates read at Minersville's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Minersville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Minersville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Minersville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Minersville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Minersville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Minersville average
How we know this about Minersville
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 Minersville’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 Minersville
When does frost risk typically end in Minersville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Minersville 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 Minersville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Minersville typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Minersville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Minersville sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 13, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Minersville?
The federal record around Minersville is a meaningful one — 546 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (311), the nearest PFAS 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 Minersville?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Minersville's scale — its 7a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Minersville'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 Minersville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Minersville's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 420 acres it covers and 546 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Minersville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Minersville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 27 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 546 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Minersville, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Minersville's boundary and the 420 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Minersville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Minersvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Minersville's 420 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Schuylkill County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Schuylkill 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 Schuylkill County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Minersville's 420 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Minersville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 420 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Minersville-wide figureread your own land →
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