Smicksburg, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Smicksburg, 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 Smicksburg 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 Smicksburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Smicksburg — the short answer
Smicksburg, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 93 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 93 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 Smicksburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Smicksburg's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Smicksburg
Each reading below is measured for Smicksburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSmicksburg runs about 185 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
MeasuredSmicksburg 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 Smicksburg is in
Smicksburg sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Smicksburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Indiana County.
What Grows in Smicksburg
Every plant below cleared Smicksburg's own zone 6a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Smicksburg?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Smicksburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Smicksburg, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Smicksburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Smicksburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IN 912Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- SENEX EXPLOSIVES 772 WELLS RDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- DAYTON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- RALPH E WILLIAMSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- BARRETT LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- MCMEANS BUS CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- VERNON MARTINUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- SENEX EXPLOSIVESUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- JE 387Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- JE 409Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- WEST MAHONING TWP MAINT BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- LITTLE MAHONING PIPELINE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Smicksburg'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 Smicksburg.
Total Sites
146
within ~10 miles of Smicksburg
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Smicksburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Smicksburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Smicksburg, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 74 sites within ~10 miles of Smicksburg. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Smicksburg
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 Smicksburg average
Your land is one point inside Smicksburg
Everything above resolves to Smicksburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 93 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 Smicksburg Average
Smicksburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Smicksburg
- ●One soil character for all of Smicksburg
- ●Frost dates read at Smicksburg's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Smicksburg's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Smicksburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Smicksburg, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Smicksburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Smicksburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smicksburg average
How we know this about Smicksburg
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 Smicksburg’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 Smicksburg
When does frost risk typically end in Smicksburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Smicksburg typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Smicksburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Smicksburg typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Smicksburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Smicksburg sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 13, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Smicksburg?
The federal record around Smicksburg shows 146 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (74), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.9 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 Smicksburg?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Smicksburg's scale — its 6a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Smicksburg'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 Smicksburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Smicksburg's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 93 acres it covers and 146 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Smicksburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Smicksburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 27 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 146 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Smicksburg, the closest Nitrate record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Smicksburg's boundary and the 93 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Smicksburg's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Smicksburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Smicksburg's 93 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Indiana County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Indiana 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 Indiana County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Smicksburg's 93 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Smicksburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 93 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.9 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 Smicksburg-wide figureread your own land →
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