Salisbury, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Salisbury, 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 Salisbury 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 Salisbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Salisbury — the short answer
Salisbury, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 245 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 245 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 Salisbury's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Salisbury's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Salisbury
Each reading below is measured for Salisbury itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSalisbury 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
MeasuredSalisbury 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 Salisbury is in
Salisbury sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Salisbury's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Salisbury
Every plant below cleared Salisbury'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 Salisbury?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Salisbury
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Salisbury, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Salisbury
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Salisbury. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SALIBURY ELK LICK SCH DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SALISBURYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- NEGRO MTN FOREST MAINT HQUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BEACHY MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 219 MINI MART & DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SALISBURY FIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- OESTER TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- WEST SALISBURY FOUND/WEST SALISBURY PLTToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- ITI TRAILER & TRUCK BODIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- GA Af 50Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- OTTO BRICK & TILE WORKS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- AEPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Salisbury'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 Salisbury.
Total Sites
148
within ~10 miles of Salisbury
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Salisbury
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Salisbury
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Salisbury
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 Salisbury average
Your land is one point inside Salisbury
Everything above resolves to Salisbury as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 245 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 Salisbury Average
Salisbury Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Salisbury
- ●One soil character for all of Salisbury
- ●Frost dates read at Salisbury's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Salisbury's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Salisbury
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Salisbury, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Salisbury averages can't show:
We read public map data around Salisbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Salisbury average
How we know this about Salisbury
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 Salisbury’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 Salisbury
When does frost risk typically end in Salisbury?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Salisbury typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Salisbury?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Salisbury typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Salisbury?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Salisbury sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 2, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Salisbury?
The federal record around Salisbury shows 148 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (73), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Salisbury?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Salisbury's scale — its 6a band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Salisbury'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 Salisbury’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Salisbury's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 245 acres it covers and 148 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Salisbury's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Salisbury's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 16 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 148 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Salisbury, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Salisbury's boundary and the 245 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 Salisbury's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Salisburylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Salisbury's 245 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Salisbury's 245 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Salisbury you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 245 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Salisbury-wide figureread your own land →