Paint, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Paint, 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 Paint 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 Paint — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paint — the short answer
Paint, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 221 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 221 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 6a is Paint's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paint's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paint
Each reading below is measured for Paint itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPaint runs about 191 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPaint sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Paint is in
Paint sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paint's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Paint
Every plant below cleared Paint's own zone 6a and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paint?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Paint
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Paint, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Paint
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paint. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PAINT BOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LAUREL FORDBrownfields · 1300 ft
- ALVINS HONDA SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ALVINS HONDA SALESBrownfields · 1800 ft
- TOTH AUTO BODY LLCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- WINDBER HOSPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GREENLEY ENERGY MINE 40Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- RICHARD SHAFFERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SHEETZ 27Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WINDBER MINE 78Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- EVELYN BRUNBERGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GOGOS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paint'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 Paint.
Total Sites
536
within ~10 miles of Paint
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
21 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paint
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paint
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 Paint
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 Paint average
Your land is one point inside Paint
Everything above resolves to Paint as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 221 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 Paint Average
Paint Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Paint
- ●One soil character for all of Paint
- ●Frost dates read at Paint's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paint's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paint
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paint, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paint averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paint — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paint average
How we know this about Paint
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 Paint’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 Paint
When does frost risk typically end in Paint?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paint typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Paint?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paint typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paint?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paint sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 13, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paint?
The federal record around Paint is a meaningful one — 536 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (307), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Paint?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paint's scale — its 6a band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paint'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 Paint’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Paint's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 221 acres it covers and 536 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paint's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paint's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 27 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 536 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paint, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paint's boundary and the 221 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paint's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Paintlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Paint's 221 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paint's 221 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paint you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 221 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Paint-wide figureread your own land →