Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mount Oliver, 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 Mount Oliver 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 Mount Oliver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Oliver — the short answer
Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 217 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 217 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 Mount Oliver's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Oliver's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Oliver
Each reading below is measured for Mount Oliver itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Oliver runs about 224 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
MeasuredMount Oliver 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 Mount Oliver is in
Mount Oliver sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Oliver's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegheny County.
What Grows in Mount Oliver
Every plant below cleared Mount Oliver's own zone 6b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Oliver?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Mount Oliver
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Mount Oliver, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mount Oliver
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Oliver. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUNOCO 0363 3096Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SUNOCO SVC STABrownfields · 1100 ft
- MT OLIVER CUSTOMER SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 2116Brownfields · 1300 ft
- A & P ONE HOUR CLEANERSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- CAPITOL AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- OLDE FASHION AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SABLE CHEVROLETBrownfields · 2200 ft
- CASCIATOS SUNOCO 0363-2411Brownfields · 2400 ft
- ATHWAL PETROUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FINK CABINETRYBrownfields · 2600 ft
- BILLS CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Oliver'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 Mount Oliver.
Total Sites
3,297
within ~10 miles of Mount Oliver
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
20 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Oliver
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Oliver
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Mount Oliver
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 Mount Oliver average
Your land is one point inside Mount Oliver
Everything above resolves to Mount Oliver as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 217 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 Mount Oliver Average
Mount Oliver Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Mount Oliver
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Oliver
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Oliver's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Oliver's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Oliver
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Oliver averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Oliver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Oliver average
How we know this about Mount Oliver
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 Mount Oliver’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 Mount Oliver
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Oliver?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Oliver typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Mount Oliver?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Oliver typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Oliver?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Oliver sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 29, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Oliver?
The federal record around Mount Oliver is a meaningful one — 3,297 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,575), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Mount Oliver?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Oliver's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Oliver'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 Mount Oliver’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mount Oliver's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 217 acres it covers and 3,297 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Oliver's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Oliver's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 12 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,297 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Oliver, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Oliver's boundary and the 217 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Oliver's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mount Oliverlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Oliver's 217 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegheny County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegheny 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 Allegheny County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Oliver's 217 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Oliver you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 217 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Mount Oliver-wide figureread your own land →