Northumberland, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Northumberland, 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 Northumberland 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 Northumberland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Northumberland — the short answer
Northumberland, 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 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- 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 Northumberland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Northumberland's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Northumberland
Each reading below is measured for Northumberland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorthumberland 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
MeasuredNorthumberland 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 Northumberland is in
Northumberland sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Northumberland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Northumberland County.
What Grows in Northumberland
Every plant below cleared Northumberland'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 Northumberland?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Northumberland
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Northumberland, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Northumberland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Northumberland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BIMBO BAKERIES USA INC/NORTHUMBERLAND PLT 2Brownfields · 1700 ft
- SUNBURY SCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- LEON EPLER FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- UPS SUNBURYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- NORTHUMBERLAND SAND PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- REA & DERICK DRUGS DIV OF PEOPLES DRUG STORESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- R & S COFFEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WWTPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SHUMAKER IND/NORTHUMBERLAND PLTBrownfields · 2200 ft
- NORTHUMBERLAND DOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ST JOHNS LUTH CHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALTERS MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Northumberland'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 Northumberland.
Total Sites
528
within ~10 miles of Northumberland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Northumberland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Northumberland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Northumberland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Northumberland — CAFO (8 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (34 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Northumberland
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 Northumberland average
Your land is one point inside Northumberland
Everything above resolves to Northumberland 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 Northumberland Average
Northumberland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Northumberland
- ●One soil character for all of Northumberland
- ●Frost dates read at Northumberland's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Northumberland's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Northumberland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Northumberland, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Northumberland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Northumberland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Northumberland average
How we know this about Northumberland
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 Northumberland’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 Northumberland
When does frost risk typically end in Northumberland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Northumberland typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Northumberland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Northumberland typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Northumberland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Northumberland sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 16, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Northumberland?
The federal record around Northumberland is a meaningful one — 528 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (292), 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 Northumberland?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Northumberland's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Northumberland'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 Northumberland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Northumberland's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,030 acres it covers and 528 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Northumberland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Northumberland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 30 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 528 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Northumberland, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Northumberland's boundary and the 1,030 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Northumberland's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Northumberlandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Northumberland's 1,030 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Northumberland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Northumberland 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 Northumberland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Northumberland's 1,030 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Northumberland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,030 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 Northumberland-wide figureread your own land →
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