New Jerusalem, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Jerusalem, 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 Jerusalem 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 Jerusalem — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Jerusalem — the short answer
New Jerusalem, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Jerusalem's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Jerusalem's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Jerusalem
Each reading below is measured for New Jerusalem itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Jerusalem runs about 202 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
MeasuredNew Jerusalem 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 Jerusalem is in
New Jerusalem sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at New Jerusalem's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Berks County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in New Jerusalem
Every plant below cleared New Jerusalem's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Jerusalem?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 New Jerusalem
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from New Jerusalem, first recorded 2014. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Jerusalem
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Jerusalem. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FEGLEY & HERTZOGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BOYERS MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EARL L RHOADS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ROCKLAND TWP MUNI BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SCOTT YOUSE ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ROCKLAND ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- EAST PENN MFG CO INC/BATTERY ASSEMBLYBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- EAST PENN MFG CO INC/BATTERY ASSEMBLYToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- TETLP M&R 73914 OLEYBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- BE 1032Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- WHISPERING PINESCAFO · 2.5 mi
- 1 W STATE AVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Jerusalem'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 Jerusalem.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Jerusalem
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Jerusalem
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in New Jerusalem
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 Jerusalem average
Your land is one point inside New Jerusalem
Everything above resolves to New Jerusalem as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Jerusalem Average
New Jerusalem Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across New Jerusalem
- ●One soil character for all of New Jerusalem
- ●Frost dates read at New Jerusalem's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Jerusalem's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Jerusalem
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Jerusalem, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Jerusalem averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Jerusalem — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Jerusalem average
How we know this about New Jerusalem
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 Jerusalem’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 Jerusalem
When does frost risk typically end in New Jerusalem?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Jerusalem typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in New Jerusalem?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Jerusalem typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Jerusalem?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Jerusalem sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 14, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Jerusalem?
The federal record around New Jerusalem runs heavier than most — 828 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (412), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 New Jerusalem?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Jerusalem's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Jerusalem'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 Jerusalem’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Jerusalem's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,163 acres it covers and 828 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Jerusalem's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Jerusalem's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 28 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 828 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Jerusalem, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Jerusalem's boundary and the 1,163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- New Jerusalem sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Jerusalemlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Jerusalem's 1,163 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berks County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berks 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 Berks County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Jerusalem's 1,163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Jerusalem you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,163 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 Jerusalem-wide figureread your own land →
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