Narberth, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Narberth, 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 Narberth 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 Narberth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Narberth — the short answer
Narberth, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 322 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 322 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 7b is Narberth's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Narberth's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Narberth
Each reading below is measured for Narberth itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNarberth runs about 242 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
MeasuredNarberth sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Narberth is in
Narberth sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Narberth's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Narberth
Every plant below cleared Narberth's own zone 7b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Narberth?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Narberth
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Narberth, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Narberth
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Narberth. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RICHARDS II AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NARBERTH BORO MONTGOMERY CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MCCANDLESS FUELSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CYNWYD AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- HORSLEY AUTO SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- REMBRANDT CLNR/NARBERTHBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CUMBERLAND GULF 142902Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- COSTA AUTO REPAIR INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- ACME 613Brownfields · 1900 ft
- GAS 22Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SUNOCO 0004 7878Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BOB RECCHIUTES MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Narberth'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 Narberth.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Narberth
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Narberth
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Narberth, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 78 sites within ~10 miles of Narberth. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Narberth
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 Narberth average
Your land is one point inside Narberth
Everything above resolves to Narberth as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 322 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 Narberth Average
Narberth Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Narberth
- ●One soil character for all of Narberth
- ●Frost dates read at Narberth's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Narberth's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Narberth
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Narberth, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Narberth averages can't show:
We read public map data around Narberth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Narberth average
How we know this about Narberth
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 Narberth’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 Narberth
When does frost risk typically end in Narberth?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Narberth typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Narberth?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Narberth typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Narberth?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Narberth sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 5, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Narberth?
The federal record around Narberth runs heavier than most — 5,454 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,817), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Narberth?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Narberth's scale — its 7b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Narberth'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 Narberth’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Narberth's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 322 acres it covers and 5,454 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Narberth's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Narberth's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 19 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,454 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Narberth, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Narberth's boundary and the 322 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Narberth's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Narberthlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Narberth's 322 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Narberth's 322 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Narberth you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 322 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 Narberth-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaNarberth sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides