North York, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North York, 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 York 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 York — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
North York — the short answer
North York, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 195 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 195 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 North York's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North York's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North York
Each reading below is measured for North York itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth York runs about 218 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
MeasuredNorth York 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 North York is in
North York sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North York's own centroid rather than borrowed from York County.
What Grows in North York
Every plant below cleared North York's own zone 7a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North York?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 North York
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from North York, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North York
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North York. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ADMIN BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- H & A CORRUGATED BOXUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- EDRIS OIL SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PROSPECT HILL CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FILSON WATER TRMTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RYDER TRUCK RENTAL 0605Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- LOOMIS ARMORED INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- RYDER TRUCK RENTAL INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- LEHRS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WALTER W ZEIGLERS SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- IWM INTERNATIONAL, LLC - WIRE FACILITYBrownfields · 2200 ft
- IWM INTERNATIONAL, LLC - WIRE FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North York'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 York.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North York
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North York
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North York, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 132 sites within ~10 miles of North York. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in North York
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 York average
Your land is one point inside North York
Everything above resolves to North York as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 195 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 York Average
North York Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across North York
- ●One soil character for all of North York
- ●Frost dates read at North York's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North York's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North York
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North York, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North York averages can't show:
We read public map data around North York — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North York average
How we know this about North York
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 York’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 York
When does frost risk typically end in North York?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North York typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in North York?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North York typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North York?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North York sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 24, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North York?
The federal record around North York runs heavier than most — 1,379 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (721), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 North York?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North York's scale — its 7a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North York'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 York’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North York's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 195 acres it covers and 1,379 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North York's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North York's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 7 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,379 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North York, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North York's boundary and the 195 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North York's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Yorklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North York's 195 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom York County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom York 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 York County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North York's 195 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North York you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 195 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 York-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaNorth York sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides