North Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Vandergrift, 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 North Vandergrift 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 North Vandergrift — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Vandergrift — the short answer
North Vandergrift, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 252 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 252 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 North Vandergrift's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Vandergrift's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Vandergrift
Each reading below is measured for North Vandergrift itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Vandergrift runs about 193 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
MeasuredNorth Vandergrift 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 North Vandergrift is in
North Vandergrift sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Vandergrift's own centroid rather than borrowed from Armstrong County.
What Grows in North Vandergrift
Every plant below cleared North Vandergrift's own zone 6b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Vandergrift?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around North Vandergrift
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from North Vandergrift, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Vandergrift
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Vandergrift. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ASHLAND BRANDED #962-000Brownfields · 1400 ft
- HARROLDS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- FMR ROGERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ARMSTRONG TRACTORBrownfields · 2200 ft
- MSI CORPBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MSI CORPToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- FUELAND 212Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CORCETTI GULF SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BYERS TAXIBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- COGOS 1787Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KOCHKAS TOWINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SPANIELS BEER DISTR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Vandergrift'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 North Vandergrift.
Total Sites
363
within ~10 miles of North Vandergrift
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Vandergrift
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Vandergrift
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Vandergrift, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of North Vandergrift. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in North Vandergrift
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 North Vandergrift average
Your land is one point inside North Vandergrift
Everything above resolves to North Vandergrift as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 252 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 North Vandergrift Average
North Vandergrift Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across North Vandergrift
- ●One soil character for all of North Vandergrift
- ●Frost dates read at North Vandergrift's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Vandergrift's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Vandergrift
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Vandergrift, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Vandergrift averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Vandergrift — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Vandergrift average
How we know this about North Vandergrift
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 North Vandergrift’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 North Vandergrift
When does frost risk typically end in North Vandergrift?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Vandergrift typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in North Vandergrift?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Vandergrift typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Vandergrift?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Vandergrift sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 15, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Vandergrift?
The federal record around North Vandergrift is a meaningful one — 363 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (191), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 North Vandergrift?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Vandergrift's scale — its 6b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Vandergrift'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 North Vandergrift’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Vandergrift's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 252 acres it covers and 363 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Vandergrift's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Vandergrift's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 29 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 363 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Vandergrift, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Vandergrift's boundary and the 252 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Vandergrift's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Vandergriftlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Vandergrift's 252 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Armstrong County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Armstrong 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 Armstrong County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Vandergrift's 252 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Vandergrift you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 252 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 North Vandergrift-wide figureread your own land →
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