Spring Mills, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spring Mills, 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 Mills 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 Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spring Mills — the short answer
Spring Mills, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 372 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 372 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 Spring Mills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spring Mills's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spring Mills
Each reading below is measured for Spring Mills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpring Mills runs about 190 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 Mills 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 Spring Mills is in
Spring Mills sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spring Mills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Centre County.
What Grows in Spring Mills
Every plant below cleared Spring Mills's own zone 6b and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spring Mills?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Oct 27 — 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 Mills
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Spring Mills, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Spring Mills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spring Mills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PENN NURSERY & WOOD SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- GREGG TWP SPVRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GETTING TECHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ROBERT KOCH EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ZERBYS BORONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PENNS VALLEY JR SR HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BIERLEIN AUTOBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CE 498Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- CE 247Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- CE 670Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- CE 253Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- NITTANY MTN EXCAVUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spring Mills'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 Mills.
Total Sites
193
within ~10 miles of Spring Mills
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spring Mills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spring Mills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spring Mills, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 72 sites within ~10 miles of Spring Mills. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Spring Mills
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 Mills average
Your land is one point inside Spring Mills
Everything above resolves to Spring Mills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 372 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 Mills Average
Spring Mills Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Spring Mills
- ●One soil character for all of Spring Mills
- ●Frost dates read at Spring Mills's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spring Mills's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spring Mills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spring Mills, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spring Mills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spring Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spring Mills average
How we know this about Spring Mills
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 Mills’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 Mills
When does frost risk typically end in Spring Mills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Mills 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 Spring Mills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Mills 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 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spring Mills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spring Mills sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 13, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spring Mills?
The federal record around Spring Mills shows 193 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (74), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Spring Mills?
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 Spring Mills's scale — its 6b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spring Mills'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 Mills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Spring Mills's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 372 acres it covers and 193 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spring Mills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spring Mills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 27 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 193 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spring Mills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spring Mills's boundary and the 372 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spring Mills's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Spring Millslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spring Mills's 372 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Centre County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Centre 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 Centre County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spring Mills's 372 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spring Mills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 372 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mills-wide figureread your own land →
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