Saw Creek, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Saw Creek, 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 Saw Creek 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 Saw Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Saw Creek — the short answer
Saw Creek, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Saw Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Saw Creek's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Saw Creek
Each reading below is measured for Saw Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSaw Creek runs about 186 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
MeasuredSaw Creek 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 Saw Creek is in
Saw Creek sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Saw Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Saw Creek
Every plant below cleared Saw Creek's own zone 6b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Saw Creek?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 Oct 22 — 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 Saw Creek
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Saw Creek, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Saw Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Saw Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- US DOI NL PARK SVC DEL WATER GAP NL RECR AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BUSHKILL GULF STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PARADISE LAKE RETREAT CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SAW CREEK MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PI 307Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- TOP OF THE WORLDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PI 558Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- PI 562Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- PI 642Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- FORMER TAMIMENT RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- CLUBHOUSE BRIDGEBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- POCMONT RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Saw Creek'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 Saw Creek.
Total Sites
199
within ~10 miles of Saw Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Saw Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Saw Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Saw Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Saw Creek — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (90 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Saw Creek
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 Saw Creek average
Your land is one point inside Saw Creek
Everything above resolves to Saw Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Saw Creek Average
Saw Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Saw Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Saw Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Saw Creek's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Saw Creek's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Saw Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Saw Creek, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Saw Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Saw Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Saw Creek average
How we know this about Saw Creek
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 Saw Creek’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 Saw Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Saw Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Saw Creek 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 Saw Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Saw Creek typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Saw Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Saw Creek sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 8, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Saw Creek?
The federal record around Saw Creek is a meaningful one — 199 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Saw Creek?
From about Sep 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 Oct 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Saw Creek's scale — its 6b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Saw Creek'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 Saw Creek’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Saw Creek's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,029 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Saw Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Saw Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 22 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Saw Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Saw Creek's boundary and the 2,029 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Saw Creek's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Saw Creeklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Saw Creek's 2,029 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike 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 Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Saw Creek's 2,029 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Saw Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,029 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Saw Creek-wide figureread your own land →