Refton, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Refton, 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 Refton 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 Refton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Refton — the short answer
Refton, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 767 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 767 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 Refton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Refton's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Refton
Each reading below is measured for Refton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRefton runs about 228 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
MeasuredRefton 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 Refton is in
Refton sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Refton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lancaster County.
What Grows in Refton
Every plant below cleared Refton's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Refton?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Refton
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Refton, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Refton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Refton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GR MITCHELL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LEAMAN TRACTOR PARTSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- LN 1473Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- LN 1953Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- LN 1831Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- KENNETH MECK FARMCAFO · 0.8 mi
- LN 1798Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- FINZER ROLLER INC WILLOW STREETBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- KENNETH HESS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RAYCO PROC SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ARK PROD COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- LN 1834Nitrate · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Refton'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 Refton.
Total Sites
1,652
within ~10 miles of Refton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
76 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Refton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Refton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Refton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Refton — CAFO (65 sites) and Nitrate (522 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 Refton
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 Refton average
Your land is one point inside Refton
Everything above resolves to Refton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 767 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 Refton Average
Refton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Refton
- ●One soil character for all of Refton
- ●Frost dates read at Refton's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Refton's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Refton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Refton, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Refton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Refton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Refton average
How we know this about Refton
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 Refton’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 Refton
When does frost risk typically end in Refton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Refton typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Refton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Refton typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Refton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Refton sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 29, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Refton?
The federal record around Refton is a meaningful one — 1,652 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (695), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Refton?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Refton's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Refton'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 Refton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Refton's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 767 acres it covers and 1,652 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Refton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Refton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 12 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,652 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Refton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Refton's boundary and the 767 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Refton's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Reftonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Refton's 767 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lancaster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lancaster 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 Lancaster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Refton's 767 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Refton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 767 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Refton-wide figureread your own land →