Shartlesville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Shartlesville, 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 Shartlesville 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 Shartlesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shartlesville — the short answer
Shartlesville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 570 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 570 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 Shartlesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shartlesville's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shartlesville
Each reading below is measured for Shartlesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShartlesville runs about 212 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
MeasuredShartlesville 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 Shartlesville is in
Shartlesville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shartlesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Berks County.
What Grows in Shartlesville
Every plant below cleared Shartlesville's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shartlesville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Shartlesville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Shartlesville, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Shartlesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shartlesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BULK CHEMICALS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- BULK CHEMICALS INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CUSTOM COMPOSITESToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- CUSTOM COMPOSITESBrownfields · 1900 ft
- HAAGS HOTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PRECISION PATTERNS & MACHINING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SUMMIT TRAILER SALES & SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KAUFFMAN MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KM BURGER RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SGL 110Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LOVES TRAVEL STOP 358Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHROME PALACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shartlesville'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 Shartlesville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shartlesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shartlesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shartlesville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Shartlesville — CAFO (32 sites) and Superfund (21 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Shartlesville
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 Shartlesville average
Your land is one point inside Shartlesville
Everything above resolves to Shartlesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 570 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 Shartlesville Average
Shartlesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Shartlesville
- ●One soil character for all of Shartlesville
- ●Frost dates read at Shartlesville's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shartlesville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shartlesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shartlesville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shartlesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shartlesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shartlesville average
How we know this about Shartlesville
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 Shartlesville’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 Shartlesville
When does frost risk typically end in Shartlesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shartlesville typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Shartlesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shartlesville typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shartlesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shartlesville sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 19, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shartlesville?
The federal record around Shartlesville is a meaningful one — 528 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (267), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Shartlesville?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shartlesville's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shartlesville'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 Shartlesville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Shartlesville's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 570 acres it covers and 528 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shartlesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shartlesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 2 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 528 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shartlesville, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shartlesville's boundary and the 570 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shartlesville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Shartlesvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shartlesville's 570 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berks County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berks 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 Berks County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shartlesville's 570 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shartlesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 570 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Shartlesville-wide figureread your own land →
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