Rockledge, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — 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, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rockledge, 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 Rockledge 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 Rockledge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rockledge — the short answer
Rockledge, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 218 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 218 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 7b is Rockledge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rockledge's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rockledge
Each reading below is measured for Rockledge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRockledge runs about 243 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
MeasuredRockledge sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Rockledge is in
Rockledge sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rockledge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Rockledge
Every plant below cleared Rockledge's own zone 7b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rockledge?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Rockledge
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Rockledge, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rockledge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rockledge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAWNVIEW CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- ROCKLEDGE VOL FIRE CO 1Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- KEYSTONE TIRE & PERFORMANCEBrownfields · 650 ft
- KEYSTONE DISCOUNT TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ATLANTIC SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 1000 ft
- SUNOCO 0363 1363Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BOBS FOREIGN AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AMOCO 3882Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CRAWFS COLLISIONBrownfields · 1300 ft
- JOE TAYLOR FOREIGN CAR SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ABINGTON TOWNSHIP MAINTENANCEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- ALVERTHORPE PARK MAINT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rockledge'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 Rockledge.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rockledge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rockledge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rockledge, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of Rockledge. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Rockledge
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 Rockledge average
Your land is one point inside Rockledge
Everything above resolves to Rockledge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 218 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 Rockledge Average
Rockledge Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Rockledge
- ●One soil character for all of Rockledge
- ●Frost dates read at Rockledge's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rockledge's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rockledge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rockledge, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rockledge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rockledge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rockledge average
How we know this about Rockledge
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 Rockledge’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 Rockledge
When does frost risk typically end in Rockledge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rockledge typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Rockledge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rockledge typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rockledge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rockledge sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 7, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rockledge?
The federal record around Rockledge runs heavier than most — 5,421 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,670), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Rockledge?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rockledge's scale — its 7b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rockledge'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 Rockledge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rockledge's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 218 acres it covers and 5,421 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rockledge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rockledge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 21 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,421 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rockledge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rockledge's boundary and the 218 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rockledge's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Rockledgelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rockledge's 218 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rockledge's 218 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rockledge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 218 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 Rockledge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaRockledge sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides