New Alexandria, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in New Alexandria, 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 New Alexandria 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 New Alexandria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Alexandria — the short answer
New Alexandria, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 542 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- 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
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 542 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 New Alexandria's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Alexandria's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Alexandria
Each reading below is measured for New Alexandria itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Alexandria 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
MeasuredNew Alexandria 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 New Alexandria is in
New Alexandria sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Alexandria's own centroid rather than borrowed from Westmoreland County.
What Grows in New Alexandria
Every plant below cleared New Alexandria's own zone 6b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Alexandria?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around New Alexandria
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from New Alexandria, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Alexandria
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Alexandria. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LONE STAR DAIRY PARTNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SHEETZ 314Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- B E S T INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- GRABIAK CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SHEETZ STORE NO 314Brownfields · 2000 ft
- GRABIAK CHEV INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SHEFFLERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SUNOCO 0002 0990Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- RAMALEY EQUIP & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- S & J MINI MART INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BEST OIL 18Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Alexandria'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 New Alexandria.
Total Sites
674
within ~10 miles of New Alexandria
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Alexandria
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Alexandria
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 New Alexandria
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 New Alexandria average
Your land is one point inside New Alexandria
Everything above resolves to New Alexandria as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 542 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 New Alexandria Average
New Alexandria Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across New Alexandria
- ●One soil character for all of New Alexandria
- ●Frost dates read at New Alexandria's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Alexandria's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Alexandria
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Alexandria, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Alexandria averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Alexandria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Alexandria average
How we know this about New Alexandria
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 New Alexandria’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 New Alexandria
When does frost risk typically end in New Alexandria?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Alexandria typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in New Alexandria?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Alexandria 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 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Alexandria?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Alexandria sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 16, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Alexandria?
The federal record around New Alexandria is a meaningful one — 674 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (325), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 New Alexandria?
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 New Alexandria's scale — its 6b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Alexandria'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 New Alexandria’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Alexandria's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 542 acres it covers and 674 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Alexandria's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Alexandria's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 30 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 674 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Alexandria, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Alexandria's boundary and the 542 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Alexandria's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Alexandrialydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Alexandria's 542 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 New Alexandria's 542 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Alexandria you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 542 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 New Alexandria-wide figureread your own land →
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