Sheakleyville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sheakleyville, 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 Sheakleyville 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 Sheakleyville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sheakleyville — the short answer
Sheakleyville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 125 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 125 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 Sheakleyville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sheakleyville's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sheakleyville
Each reading below is measured for Sheakleyville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSheakleyville runs about 197 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
MeasuredSheakleyville 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 Sheakleyville is in
Sheakleyville sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sheakleyville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mercer County.
What Grows in Sheakleyville
Every plant below cleared Sheakleyville's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sheakleyville?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Sheakleyville
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Sheakleyville, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sheakleyville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sheakleyville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MR 2451Nitrate · 650 ft
- CHESS SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ALLTEL PAUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MAYS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CAREYS LAWN & GARDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WAGLERS CAMP PERRY NORTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MR 1837Nitrate · 2500 ft
- GTI ELEC DIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BUCKS FABRICATING/HADLEYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- MR 3306 Mercer County Observation WellNitrate · 1.9 mi
- FRANCIS D TURNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- SANDY CREEK TWP MERCER CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sheakleyville'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 Sheakleyville.
Total Sites
237
within ~10 miles of Sheakleyville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sheakleyville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sheakleyville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sheakleyville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sheakleyville — Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites) and Nitrate (62 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sheakleyville
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 Sheakleyville average
Your land is one point inside Sheakleyville
Everything above resolves to Sheakleyville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 125 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 Sheakleyville Average
Sheakleyville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Sheakleyville
- ●One soil character for all of Sheakleyville
- ●Frost dates read at Sheakleyville's scale: Apr 20 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sheakleyville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sheakleyville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sheakleyville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sheakleyville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sheakleyville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sheakleyville average
How we know this about Sheakleyville
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 Sheakleyville’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 Sheakleyville
When does frost risk typically end in Sheakleyville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sheakleyville typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Sheakleyville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sheakleyville typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sheakleyville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sheakleyville sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 20, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sheakleyville?
The federal record around Sheakleyville is a meaningful one — 237 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (119), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Sheakleyville?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sheakleyville's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sheakleyville'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 Sheakleyville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sheakleyville's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 125 acres it covers and 237 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sheakleyville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sheakleyville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Nov 3 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 237 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sheakleyville, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sheakleyville's boundary and the 125 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sheakleyville's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Sheakleyvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sheakleyville's 125 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sheakleyville's 125 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sheakleyville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 125 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Sheakleyville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaSheakleyville sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides