Prospect Park, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Prospect Park, 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 Prospect Park 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 Prospect Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Prospect Park — the short answer
Prospect Park, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 390 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 390 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 Prospect Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prospect Park's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prospect Park
Each reading below is measured for Prospect Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredProspect Park runs about 169 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
MeasuredProspect Park 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 Prospect Park is in
Prospect Park sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Prospect Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cameron County.
What Grows in Prospect Park
Every plant below cleared Prospect Park's own zone 6a and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prospect Park?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Prospect Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Prospect Park, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Prospect Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prospect Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SINTER METALSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GKN SINTER METALS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ELK FOREST DIST 13 SYLVAN HEIGHTS WHSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GKN SINTER METALS - EMIToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- EMPORIUM BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KWIK FILLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- KWIK FILL M 147Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RAMSEYS AUTO BODY GARAGEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- STEVE TRONCONE EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- RICHARD GERBERS PROPANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CM 12Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- AMERICAN SINTERED TECHNOLOGIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prospect Park'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 Prospect Park.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Prospect Park
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prospect Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prospect Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prospect Park, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Prospect Park. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Prospect Park
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 Prospect Park average
Your land is one point inside Prospect Park
Everything above resolves to Prospect Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 390 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 Prospect Park Average
Prospect Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Prospect Park
- ●One soil character for all of Prospect Park
- ●Frost dates read at Prospect Park's scale: May 3 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prospect Park's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prospect Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prospect Park, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prospect Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prospect Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prospect Park average
How we know this about Prospect Park
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 Prospect Park’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 Prospect Park
When does frost risk typically end in Prospect Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prospect Park typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Prospect Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prospect Park typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prospect Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prospect Park sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Oct 5, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prospect Park?
The federal record around Prospect Park shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Prospect Park?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Prospect Park's scale — its 6a band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prospect Park'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 Prospect Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Prospect Park's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 390 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prospect Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Prospect Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 19 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prospect Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prospect Park's boundary and the 390 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prospect Park's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Prospect Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Prospect Park's 390 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cameron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cameron 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 Cameron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prospect Park's 390 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prospect Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 390 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Prospect Park-wide figureread your own land →