Pillow, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pillow, 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 Pillow 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 Pillow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pillow — the short answer
Pillow, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 316 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 316 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 Pillow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pillow's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pillow
Each reading below is measured for Pillow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPillow runs about 209 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
MeasuredPillow 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 Pillow is in
Pillow sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pillow's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dauphin County.
What Grows in Pillow
Every plant below cleared Pillow's own zone 7a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pillow?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Pillow
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Pillow, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pillow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pillow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PILLOW MFGUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- AEP PILLOWUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- JUST-A-MERE FAMILY FARM CAFOCAFO · 0.8 mi
- EMMANUEL L LAPP FARMCAFO · 1.0 mi
- KOLVA SAWMILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- EMWAY FARMS CAFOCAFO · 1.8 mi
- DA 660Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- NU 244Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- COLLETT FARMCAFO · 2.4 mi
- DA 665Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 2241 MOUNTAIN RDBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- LYNN E SCHWALMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pillow'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 Pillow.
Total Sites
216
within ~10 miles of Pillow
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pillow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pillow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pillow, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pillow — CAFO (14 sites) and Nitrate (68 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Pillow
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 Pillow average
Your land is one point inside Pillow
Everything above resolves to Pillow as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 316 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 Pillow Average
Pillow Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pillow
- ●One soil character for all of Pillow
- ●Frost dates read at Pillow's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pillow's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pillow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pillow, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pillow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pillow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pillow average
How we know this about Pillow
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 Pillow’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 Pillow
When does frost risk typically end in Pillow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pillow typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Pillow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pillow typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pillow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pillow sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 18, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pillow?
The federal record around Pillow is a meaningful one — 216 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (99), 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 Pillow?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pillow's scale — its 7a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pillow'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 Pillow’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pillow's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 316 acres it covers and 216 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pillow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pillow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 1 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 216 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pillow, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pillow's boundary and the 316 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pillow's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pillowlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pillow's 316 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dauphin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dauphin 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 Dauphin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pillow's 316 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pillow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 316 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 Pillow-wide figureread your own land →
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