Somerset, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Somerset, 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 Somerset 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 Somerset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Somerset — the short answer
Somerset, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 5b, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- 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 5b is Somerset's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Somerset's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Somerset
Each reading below is measured for Somerset itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSomerset runs about 162 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
MeasuredSomerset sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Somerset is in
Somerset sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Somerset's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Somerset
Every plant below cleared Somerset's own zone 5b and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Somerset?
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 Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Somerset
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Somerset, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Somerset
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Somerset. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOMERSET ONCOLOGY CTRBrownfields · 600 ft
- SOMERSET TOWERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- SOMERSET HOSPUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WALTERS TIRE SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- GTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SOMERSET COMMUNITY HOSPITAL/SOMERSETBrownfields · 850 ft
- SOMERSET BORO VACANT PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- LONG PRINTINGBrownfields · 1000 ft
- LUTHER P MILLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LUTHERS LITTLE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GUSTINE SOMERSET ASSOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SOMERSET WELDING & STEEL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Somerset'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 Somerset.
Total Sites
373
within ~10 miles of Somerset
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Somerset
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Somerset
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Somerset, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Somerset — CAFO (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (27 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Somerset
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 Somerset average
Your land is one point inside Somerset
Everything above resolves to Somerset 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 Somerset Average
Somerset Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Somerset
- ●One soil character for all of Somerset
- ●Frost dates read at Somerset's scale: May 4 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Somerset's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Somerset
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Somerset, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Somerset averages can't show:
We read public map data around Somerset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Somerset average
How we know this about Somerset
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 Somerset’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 Somerset
When does frost risk typically end in Somerset?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Somerset typically lands around May 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 May 25.
When is the first frost in Somerset?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Somerset typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Somerset?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Somerset sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 29, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Somerset?
The federal record around Somerset is a meaningful one — 373 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (194), the nearest Brownfields 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 Somerset?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Somerset's scale — its 5b band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Somerset'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 Somerset’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Somerset's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,747 acres it covers and 373 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Somerset's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Somerset's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 13 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 373 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Somerset, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Somerset's boundary and the 1,747 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Somerset's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Somersetlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Somerset's 1,747 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Somerset's 1,747 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Somerset you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,747 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Somerset-wide figureread your own land →