Pennsburg, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pennsburg, 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 Pennsburg 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 Pennsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pennsburg — the short answer
Pennsburg, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 508 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 508 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 Pennsburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pennsburg's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pennsburg
Each reading below is measured for Pennsburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPennsburg runs about 216 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
MeasuredPennsburg 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 Pennsburg is in
Pennsburg sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pennsburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Pennsburg
Every plant below cleared Pennsburg's own zone 7a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pennsburg?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Pennsburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Pennsburg, first recorded 2015. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pennsburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pennsburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PENNSBURG MUNI BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- PENNSBURG SCHOOLHOUSE APTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BUCKS MT PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- GOETZ JP AUTOMOTIVE INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- JP GOETZ AUTOBrownfields · 950 ft
- TURKEY HILL MINIT MKT 271Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 1ST CUSTOM CLNRBrownfields · 1100 ft
- PENNSBURG CTL OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 7 ELEVEN 17183Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #7073Brownfields · 1200 ft
- PENNSBURG AUTO BODY & TIREBrownfields · 1200 ft
- WEIS GAS N GO 196Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pennsburg'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 Pennsburg.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pennsburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pennsburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pennsburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pennsburg — PFAS (12 sites) and Superfund (13 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Pennsburg
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 Pennsburg average
Your land is one point inside Pennsburg
Everything above resolves to Pennsburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 508 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 Pennsburg Average
Pennsburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pennsburg
- ●One soil character for all of Pennsburg
- ●Frost dates read at Pennsburg's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pennsburg's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pennsburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pennsburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pennsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pennsburg average
How we know this about Pennsburg
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 Pennsburg’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 Pennsburg
When does frost risk typically end in Pennsburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pennsburg typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Pennsburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pennsburg typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pennsburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pennsburg sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 21, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pennsburg?
The federal record around Pennsburg runs heavier than most — 950 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (452), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Pennsburg?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pennsburg's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pennsburg'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 Pennsburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pennsburg's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 508 acres it covers and 950 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pennsburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pennsburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 4 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 950 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pennsburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pennsburg's boundary and the 508 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pennsburg's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pennsburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pennsburg's 508 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 Pennsburg's 508 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pennsburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 508 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 Pennsburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaPennsburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides