Oliver, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oliver, 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 Oliver 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 Oliver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oliver — the short answer
Oliver, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- 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
- ~200
- 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 Oliver's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oliver's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oliver
Each reading below is measured for Oliver itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOliver runs about 200 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
MeasuredOliver 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 Oliver is in
Oliver sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oliver's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fayette County is mostly Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Oliver
Every plant below cleared Oliver's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oliver?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Oliver
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Oliver, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Oliver
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oliver. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAYETTE COUNTY RECYCLING CENTERBrownfields · 350 ft
- CTR INDEPENDENT 10 PACPRIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- EW BOWMAN INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- LION DRYCLEANINGBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MARSOLINO CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PENN STATE UNIV FAYETTE CAMPUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GOLDEN EAGLE CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- UNIONTOWN PIPELINE WHSE 21Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FRUEHAUF TRAILER OPRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GOLDEN EAGLE PETROUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 6988Brownfields · 2100 ft
- UNIONTOWN CONST WORK CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oliver'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 Oliver.
Total Sites
419
within ~10 miles of Oliver
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
14 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oliver
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oliver
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Oliver
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 Oliver average
Your land is one point inside Oliver
Everything above resolves to Oliver 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 Oliver Average
Oliver Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Oliver
- ●One soil character for all of Oliver
- ●Frost dates read at Oliver's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oliver's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oliver
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oliver, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oliver averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oliver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oliver average
How we know this about Oliver
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 Oliver’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 Oliver
When does frost risk typically end in Oliver?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oliver typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Oliver?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oliver 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 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oliver?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oliver sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 17, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oliver?
The federal record around Oliver is a meaningful one — 419 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (243), the nearest Brownfields 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 Oliver?
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 Oliver's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oliver'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 Oliver’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Oliver's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,421 acres it covers and 419 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oliver's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oliver's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 31 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 419 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oliver, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oliver's boundary and the 1,421 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Oliver sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Oliverlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oliver's 1,421 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oliver's 1,421 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oliver you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,421 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Oliver-wide figureread your own land →
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