Paradise, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Paradise, 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 Paradise 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 Paradise — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Paradise — the short answer
Paradise, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 745 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 745 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 Paradise's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paradise's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paradise
Each reading below is measured for Paradise itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredParadise runs about 224 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
MeasuredParadise 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 Paradise is in
Paradise sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paradise's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lancaster County.
What Grows in Paradise
Every plant below cleared Paradise's own zone 7a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paradise?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Paradise
Spotted lanternfly documented 0 miles from Paradise, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Paradise
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paradise. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BYLERS QUIK MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MCMINNS ASPHALT PRODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AMOS EBY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LN 1970Nitrate · 1700 ft
- J RONALD BURKHOLDER AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2100 ft
- STOCK BLDG SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DENLINGER INCORPBrownfields · 2500 ft
- CLARK ELECUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- PARADISE TWP SEW PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KEIM CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LN 1905Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- IVAN K. LAPPCAFO · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paradise'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 Paradise.
Total Sites
1,571
within ~10 miles of Paradise
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
66 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paradise
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paradise
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paradise, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Paradise — CAFO (50 sites) and Nitrate (706 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Paradise
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 Paradise average
Your land is one point inside Paradise
Everything above resolves to Paradise as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 745 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 Paradise Average
Paradise Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Paradise
- ●One soil character for all of Paradise
- ●Frost dates read at Paradise's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paradise's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paradise
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paradise, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paradise averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paradise — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paradise average
How we know this about Paradise
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 Paradise’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 Paradise
When does frost risk typically end in Paradise?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paradise typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Paradise?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paradise typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paradise?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paradise sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 26, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paradise?
The federal record around Paradise is a meaningful one — 1,571 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (706), 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 Paradise?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paradise's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paradise'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 Paradise’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Paradise's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 745 acres it covers and 1,571 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paradise's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paradise's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 9 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,571 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paradise, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paradise's boundary and the 745 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paradise's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Paradiselydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Paradise's 745 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lancaster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lancaster 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 Lancaster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paradise's 745 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paradise you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 745 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 Paradise-wide figureread your own land →