Spring Hill, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Spring Hill, 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 Spring Hill 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 Spring Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Spring Hill — the short answer
Spring Hill, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 668 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 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 668 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 Spring Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spring Hill's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spring Hill
Each reading below is measured for Spring Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.

Season length
MeasuredSpring Hill runs about 181 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
MeasuredSpring Hill 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 Spring Hill is in
Spring Hill sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spring Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cambria County.
What Grows in Spring Hill
Every plant below cleared Spring Hill's own zone 6a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.






























Is it too late to plant in Spring Hill?
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 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 23 — 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 Spring Hill
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Spring Hill, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Spring Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spring Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOUBLE BELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FISHERSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SAY COREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- AEP COONEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- PORTAGE HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- STAGER CHEVROLETBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- WESLEYAN HOLINESS ACADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PORTAGE TWP GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MARTYS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- STAGER CHEVYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- DOX PLANKSBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- JOES AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spring Hill'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 Spring Hill.
Total Sites
286
within ~10 miles of Spring Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spring Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spring Hill
Highest-Severity Sites

A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spring Hill, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Spring Hill. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Spring Hill
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 Spring Hill average
Your land is one point inside Spring Hill
Everything above resolves to Spring Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 668 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 Spring Hill Average
Spring Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Spring Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Spring Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Spring Hill's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spring Hill's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spring Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spring Hill, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spring Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spring Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spring Hill average
How we know this about Spring Hill
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 Spring Hill’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 Spring Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Spring Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Hill 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 Spring Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Hill typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spring Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spring Hill sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 9, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spring Hill?
The federal record around Spring Hill is a meaningful one — 286 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (165), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Spring Hill?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spring Hill's scale — its 6a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spring Hill'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 Spring Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Spring Hill's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 668 acres it covers and 286 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spring Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spring Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 23 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 286 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spring Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spring Hill's boundary and the 668 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spring Hill's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Spring Hilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spring Hill's 668 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cambria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cambria 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 Cambria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spring Hill's 668 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spring Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 668 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Spring Hill-wide figureread your own land →
