Slatedale, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Slatedale, 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 Slatedale 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 Slatedale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Slatedale — the short answer
Slatedale, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 191 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 191 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 Slatedale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Slatedale's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Slatedale
Each reading below is measured for Slatedale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSlatedale runs about 202 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
MeasuredSlatedale 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 Slatedale is in
Slatedale sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Slatedale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lehigh County.
What Grows in Slatedale
Every plant below cleared Slatedale's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Slatedale?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Slatedale
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Slatedale, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Slatedale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Slatedale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J & G PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PENN BIG BED SLATE CO INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- PENN BIG BED SLATE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- LE 844Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- REXTOWN SUPPLY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WASHINGTON TWP LEHIGH CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- D & J AUTO INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- HILLTOP EXCAVATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SLATINGTON BOROUGH WATER SYSPFAS · 1.4 mi
- LE 1427Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- RONALD E KISTLER PLUMBING & HEATING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PETERS ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Slatedale'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 Slatedale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Slatedale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Slatedale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Slatedale, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Slatedale. 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.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Slatedale
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 Slatedale average
Your land is one point inside Slatedale
Everything above resolves to Slatedale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 191 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 Slatedale Average
Slatedale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Slatedale
- ●One soil character for all of Slatedale
- ●Frost dates read at Slatedale's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Slatedale's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Slatedale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Slatedale, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Slatedale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Slatedale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Slatedale average
How we know this about Slatedale
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 Slatedale’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 Slatedale
When does frost risk typically end in Slatedale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Slatedale typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Slatedale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Slatedale typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Slatedale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Slatedale sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 14, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Slatedale?
The federal record around Slatedale runs heavier than most — 575 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (312), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles 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 Slatedale?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Slatedale's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Slatedale'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 Slatedale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Slatedale's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 191 acres it covers and 575 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Slatedale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Slatedale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 28 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 575 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Slatedale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Slatedale's boundary and the 191 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Slatedale's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Slatedalelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Slatedale's 191 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lehigh County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lehigh 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 Lehigh County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Slatedale's 191 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Slatedale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 191 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Slatedale-wide figureread your own land →