Queens Gate, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Queens Gate, 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 Queens Gate 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 Queens Gate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Queens Gate — the short answer
Queens Gate, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 369 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 369 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 Queens Gate's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Queens Gate's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Queens Gate
Each reading below is measured for Queens Gate itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredQueens Gate runs about 217 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
MeasuredQueens Gate 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 Queens Gate is in
Queens Gate sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Queens Gate's own centroid rather than borrowed from York County.
What Grows in Queens Gate
Every plant below cleared Queens Gate's own zone 7a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Queens Gate?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Queens Gate
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Queens Gate, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Queens Gate
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Queens Gate. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHEETZ #373 REBUILDBrownfields · 2000 ft
- GETTY 69010Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SHAULL OLDSMOBILE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SHEETZ 373Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #1657Brownfields · 2100 ft
- GRIFFITH HONDA OF YORKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- GRIFFITH CADILLAC COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WALGREENS #9677Brownfields · 2300 ft
- HAROLD H HOGG INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- S QUEEN ST MOBIL C 41Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GIANT FOOD STORE 6079Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SUNOCO 0363 2940Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Queens Gate'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 Queens Gate.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Queens Gate
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Queens Gate
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Queens Gate, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 137 sites within ~10 miles of Queens Gate. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Queens Gate
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 Queens Gate average
Your land is one point inside Queens Gate
Everything above resolves to Queens Gate as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 369 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 Queens Gate Average
Queens Gate Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Queens Gate
- ●One soil character for all of Queens Gate
- ●Frost dates read at Queens Gate's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Queens Gate's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Queens Gate
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Queens Gate, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Queens Gate averages can't show:
We read public map data around Queens Gate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Queens Gate average
How we know this about Queens Gate
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 Queens Gate’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 Queens Gate
When does frost risk typically end in Queens Gate?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Queens Gate typically lands around Apr 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 Apr 24.
When is the first frost in Queens Gate?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Queens Gate typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Queens Gate?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Queens Gate sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 23, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Queens Gate?
The federal record around Queens Gate runs heavier than most — 1,396 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (725), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles 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 Queens Gate?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Queens Gate's scale — its 7a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Queens Gate'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 Queens Gate’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Queens Gate's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 369 acres it covers and 1,396 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Queens Gate's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Queens Gate's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 6 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,396 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Queens Gate, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Queens Gate's boundary and the 369 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Queens Gate's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Queens Gatelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Queens Gate's 369 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom York County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom York 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 York County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Queens Gate's 369 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Queens Gate you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 369 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Queens Gate-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaQueens Gate sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides