Pulaski, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pulaski, 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 Pulaski 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 Pulaski — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pulaski — the short answer
Pulaski, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 169 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 169 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 6b is Pulaski's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pulaski's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pulaski
Each reading below is measured for Pulaski itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPulaski runs about 197 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
MeasuredPulaski sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Pulaski is in
Pulaski sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pulaski's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lawrence County.
What Grows in Pulaski
Every plant below cleared Pulaski's own zone 6b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pulaski?
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 Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Pulaski
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Pulaski, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pulaski
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pulaski. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- (Facility) Metcoa Smelter & Ref.--New CastleMining · 950 ft
- COXS CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- NESBIT PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- YOUNG GALVANIZINGToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- YOUNG GALVANIZINGBrownfields · 2400 ft
- YOUNG GALVANIZINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LANE METAL PROD DIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- NEW CASTLE SCH OF TRADESBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- WALLACE BLDRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- LA 1201 Lawrence County Observation WellNitrate · 2.3 mi
- ZAMBELLI FIREWORKS MFGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MULTI MEDIA STRIPPINGBrownfields · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pulaski'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 Pulaski.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pulaski
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pulaski
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pulaski, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Pulaski. 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 Pulaski
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 Pulaski average
Your land is one point inside Pulaski
Everything above resolves to Pulaski as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 169 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 Pulaski Average
Pulaski Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pulaski
- ●One soil character for all of Pulaski
- ●Frost dates read at Pulaski's scale: Apr 19 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pulaski's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pulaski
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pulaski, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pulaski averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pulaski — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pulaski average
How we know this about Pulaski
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 Pulaski’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 Pulaski
When does frost risk typically end in Pulaski?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pulaski 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 Pulaski?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pulaski typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pulaski?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pulaski sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 19, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pulaski?
The federal record around Pulaski is a meaningful one — 730 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (340), the nearest Mining 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 Pulaski?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pulaski's scale — its 6b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pulaski'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 Pulaski’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pulaski's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 169 acres it covers and 730 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pulaski's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pulaski's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Nov 2 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 730 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pulaski, the closest Mining record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pulaski's boundary and the 169 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pulaski's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pulaskilydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pulaski's 169 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pulaski's 169 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pulaski you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 169 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining 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 Pulaski-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaPulaski sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides