Oxford, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Oxford, 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 Oxford 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 Oxford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oxford — the short answer
Oxford, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- 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 7a is Oxford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oxford's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oxford
Each reading below is measured for Oxford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOxford runs about 215 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
MeasuredOxford 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 Oxford is in
Oxford sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oxford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chester County.
What Grows in Oxford
Every plant below cleared Oxford's own zone 7a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oxford?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Oxford
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Oxford, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Oxford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oxford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OXFORD CTL OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ROBINSONS FURNITUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- UNION FIRE CO 1Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SOUTH PENN GAS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- OXFORD BORO CHESTER CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- FARMERS MILL MUSHROOM FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- OXFORD MANORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- OXFORD GRAIN & HAY CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- OXFORD CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- OXFORD FUELS 69439Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- B & J AUTO CLEANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- OXFORD LAUNDER CTRBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oxford'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 Oxford.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oxford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oxford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oxford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Oxford — CAFO (41 sites) and Nitrate (328 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Oxford
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 Oxford average
Your land is one point inside Oxford
Everything above resolves to Oxford 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 Oxford Average
Oxford Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Oxford
- ●One soil character for all of Oxford
- ●Frost dates read at Oxford's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oxford's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oxford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oxford, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oxford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oxford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oxford average
How we know this about Oxford
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 Oxford’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 Oxford
When does frost risk typically end in Oxford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oxford typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Oxford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oxford typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oxford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oxford sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 22, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oxford?
The federal record around Oxford is a meaningful one — 673 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (328), 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 Oxford?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oxford's scale — its 7a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oxford'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 Oxford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Oxford's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,256 acres it covers and 673 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oxford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oxford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 5 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 673 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oxford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oxford's boundary and the 1,256 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oxford's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Oxfordlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oxford's 1,256 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chester 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 Chester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oxford's 1,256 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oxford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,256 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 Oxford-wide figureread your own land →