Oak Lane, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Oak Lane, 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 Oak Lane 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 Oak Lane — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oak Lane — the short answer
Oak Lane, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 543 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 543 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 7b is Oak Lane's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oak Lane's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oak Lane
Each reading below is measured for Oak Lane itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOak Lane runs about 246 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
MeasuredOak Lane sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Oak Lane is in
Oak Lane sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oak Lane's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Oak Lane
Every plant below cleared Oak Lane's own zone 7b and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oak Lane?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Oak Lane
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Oak Lane, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Oak Lane
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oak Lane. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AMOCO 1246Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- GIMBLE STORE 202Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ASHBOURNE CCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ADMIN BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MELROSE CCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NOVICK CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SUNOCO SVC STABrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SUNOCO 0363 3666Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHELTENHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT ADMBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CHELTENHAM NURSING & REHAB CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TETLP M & R 034 MP 20.5Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- OAK LANE TRANSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oak Lane'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 Oak Lane.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oak Lane
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oak Lane
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oak Lane, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 96 sites within ~10 miles of Oak Lane. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Oak Lane
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 Oak Lane average
Your land is one point inside Oak Lane
Everything above resolves to Oak Lane as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 543 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 Oak Lane Average
Oak Lane Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Oak Lane
- ●One soil character for all of Oak Lane
- ●Frost dates read at Oak Lane's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oak Lane's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oak Lane
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oak Lane, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oak Lane averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oak Lane — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oak Lane average
How we know this about Oak Lane
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 Oak Lane’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 Oak Lane
When does frost risk typically end in Oak Lane?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Lane typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Oak Lane?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Lane typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oak Lane?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oak Lane sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 7, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oak Lane?
The federal record around Oak Lane runs heavier than most — 6,106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,095), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Oak Lane?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oak Lane's scale — its 7b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oak Lane'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 Oak Lane’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Oak Lane's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 543 acres it covers and 6,106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oak Lane's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oak Lane's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 21 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oak Lane, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oak Lane's boundary and the 543 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oak Lane's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Oak Lanelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oak Lane's 543 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oak Lane's 543 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oak Lane you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 543 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Oak Lane-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaOak Lane sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides