Newton Hamilton, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Newton Hamilton, 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 Newton Hamilton 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 Newton Hamilton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Newton Hamilton — the short answer
Newton Hamilton, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 99 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 99 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 7a is Newton Hamilton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Newton Hamilton's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Newton Hamilton
Each reading below is measured for Newton Hamilton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNewton Hamilton runs about 213 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
MeasuredNewton Hamilton sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Newton Hamilton is in
Newton Hamilton sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Newton Hamilton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mifflin County.
What Grows in Newton Hamilton
Every plant below cleared Newton Hamilton's own zone 7a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Newton Hamilton?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Newton Hamilton
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Newton Hamilton, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Newton Hamilton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Newton Hamilton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RIVERFRONT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- MT UNION MUNICIPAL AUTHPFAS · 350 ft
- KISTLER ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MT UNION STORE 339Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- MARTIN OIL CO MARTIN GENERAL STOREBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- 3 G MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BEACON LODGE CAMP FOR THE BLINDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- WALD, JOHN R CO INCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- ELCO CORPBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- MF 236Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- FCI USA LLCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- FCI USA LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Newton Hamilton'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 Newton Hamilton.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Newton Hamilton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Newton Hamilton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Newton Hamilton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Newton Hamilton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Newton Hamilton — Nitrate (34 sites) and Mining (7 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Newton Hamilton
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 Newton Hamilton average
Your land is one point inside Newton Hamilton
Everything above resolves to Newton Hamilton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 99 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 Newton Hamilton Average
Newton Hamilton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Newton Hamilton
- ●One soil character for all of Newton Hamilton
- ●Frost dates read at Newton Hamilton's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Newton Hamilton's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Newton Hamilton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Newton Hamilton, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Newton Hamilton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Newton Hamilton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Newton Hamilton average
How we know this about Newton Hamilton
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 Newton Hamilton’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 Newton Hamilton
When does frost risk typically end in Newton Hamilton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Newton Hamilton typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Newton Hamilton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Newton Hamilton typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Newton Hamilton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Newton Hamilton sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 22, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Newton Hamilton?
The federal record around Newton Hamilton shows 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (39), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Newton Hamilton?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Newton Hamilton's scale — its 7a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Newton Hamilton'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 Newton Hamilton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Newton Hamilton's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 99 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Newton Hamilton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Newton Hamilton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 5 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Newton Hamilton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Newton Hamilton's boundary and the 99 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Newton Hamilton's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Newton Hamiltonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Newton Hamilton's 99 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mifflin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mifflin 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 Mifflin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Newton Hamilton's 99 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Newton Hamilton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 99 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Newton Hamilton-wide figureread your own land →
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