New Lebanon, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Lebanon, 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 Lebanon 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 Lebanon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Lebanon — the short answer
New Lebanon, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 815 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 815 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 6a is New Lebanon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Lebanon's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Lebanon
Each reading below is measured for New Lebanon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Lebanon runs about 194 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 Lebanon sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Lebanon is in
New Lebanon sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Lebanon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mercer County.
What Grows in New Lebanon
Every plant below cleared New Lebanon's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Lebanon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Lebanon
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from New Lebanon, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Lebanon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Lebanon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MR 2085Nitrate · 2200 ft
- MR 2074Nitrate · 2400 ft
- MR 1056Nitrate · 2500 ft
- CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- J & L AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- FRENCH CREEK TWP MERCER CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- MR 227Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- MCQUISTON EXIT 34 RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- WALKER CHEVROLETBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- PPG INDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MK GODDARD STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- FERGIES BAIT & TACKLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Lebanon'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 Lebanon.
Total Sites
138
within ~10 miles of New Lebanon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Lebanon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Lebanon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Lebanon, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 86 sites within ~10 miles of New Lebanon. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in New Lebanon
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 Lebanon average
Your land is one point inside New Lebanon
Everything above resolves to New Lebanon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 815 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 Lebanon Average
New Lebanon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across New Lebanon
- ●One soil character for all of New Lebanon
- ●Frost dates read at New Lebanon's scale: Apr 21 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Lebanon's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Lebanon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Lebanon, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Lebanon averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Lebanon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Lebanon average
How we know this about New Lebanon
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 Lebanon’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 Lebanon
When does frost risk typically end in New Lebanon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Lebanon typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in New Lebanon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Lebanon typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Lebanon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Lebanon sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 18, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Lebanon?
The federal record around New Lebanon is a meaningful one — 138 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Nitrate 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 Lebanon?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Lebanon's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Lebanon'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 Lebanon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Lebanon's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 815 acres it covers and 138 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Lebanon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Lebanon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Nov 1 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 138 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Lebanon, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Lebanon's boundary and the 815 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Lebanon's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Lebanonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Lebanon's 815 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Lebanon's 815 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Lebanon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 815 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Lebanon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaNew Lebanon sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides