Northwood, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Northwood, 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 Northwood 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 Northwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Northwood — the short answer
Northwood, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 338 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 338 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 Northwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Northwood's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Northwood
Each reading below is measured for Northwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorthwood runs about 204 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
MeasuredNorthwood 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 Northwood is in
Northwood sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Northwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blair County.
What Grows in Northwood
Every plant below cleared Northwood's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Northwood?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Northwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Northwood, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Northwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Northwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IRVIN TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- WR GRACE & CO CONN/TYRONEToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- WR GRACE & CO CONN/TYRONEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- TEAM TEN TYRONE MILLToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- TEAM TEN TYRONE MILLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- TYRONE BULK PLT 009Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHICAGO RIVET & MACH/TYRONE PLTToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- CHICAGO RIVET & MACH/TYRONE PLTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BA 73Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- BA 71Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- BA 72Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- TYRONE CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Northwood'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 Northwood.
Total Sites
155
within ~10 miles of Northwood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Northwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Northwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Northwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Northwood — CAFO (3 sites) and Mining (18 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Northwood
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 Northwood average
Your land is one point inside Northwood
Everything above resolves to Northwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 338 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 Northwood Average
Northwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Northwood
- ●One soil character for all of Northwood
- ●Frost dates read at Northwood's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Northwood's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Northwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Northwood, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Northwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Northwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Northwood average
How we know this about Northwood
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 Northwood’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 Northwood
When does frost risk typically end in Northwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Northwood typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Northwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Northwood typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Northwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Northwood sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 17, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Northwood?
The federal record around Northwood is a meaningful one — 155 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Northwood?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Northwood's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Northwood'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 Northwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Northwood's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 338 acres it covers and 155 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Northwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Northwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 31 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 155 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Northwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Northwood's boundary and the 338 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Northwood's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Northwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Northwood's 338 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blair 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 Blair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Northwood's 338 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Northwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 338 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 Northwood-wide figureread your own land →
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