St. Vincent College, 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in St. Vincent College, 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 St. Vincent College 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 St. Vincent College — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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St. Vincent College — the short answer
St. Vincent College, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 323 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 323 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 St. Vincent College's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against St. Vincent College's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in St. Vincent College
Each reading below is measured for St. Vincent College itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSt. Vincent College runs about 198 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
MeasuredSt. Vincent College 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 St. Vincent College is in
St. Vincent College sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at St. Vincent College's own centroid rather than borrowed from Westmoreland County.
What Grows in St. Vincent College
Every plant below cleared St. Vincent College's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in St. Vincent College?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around St. Vincent College
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from St. Vincent College, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near St. Vincent College
Closest first, within ~10 miles of St. Vincent College. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAINT VINCENT COLLEGEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- AGGRESSIVE GRINDING SVC INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- MORGAN ADVANCED CERAMICSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MR TIRE 694Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- COLLISION CAREBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- COEN OIL EASTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BUS MAINT FACUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ADVANCE AUTO PARTS #1220Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- LATROBE CHEVROLETBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- COLONIAL CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KENNAMETAL INC CORP CAMPUSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- KENNAMETAL INC CORP CAMPUSToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from St. Vincent College'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 St. Vincent College.
Total Sites
656
within ~10 miles of St. Vincent College
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of St. Vincent College
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of St. Vincent College
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in St. Vincent College
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 St. Vincent College average
Your land is one point inside St. Vincent College
Everything above resolves to St. Vincent College as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 323 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 St. Vincent College Average
St. Vincent College Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across St. Vincent College
- ●One soil character for all of St. Vincent College
- ●Frost dates read at St. Vincent College's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not St. Vincent College's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in St. Vincent College
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in St. Vincent College, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that St. Vincent College averages can't show:
We read public map data around St. Vincent College — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the St. Vincent College average
How we know this about St. Vincent College
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 St. Vincent College’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 St. Vincent College
When does frost risk typically end in St. Vincent College?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in St. Vincent College typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in St. Vincent College?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in St. Vincent College typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in St. Vincent College?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, St. Vincent College sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 16, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in St. Vincent College?
The federal record around St. Vincent College is a meaningful one — 656 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (325), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 St. Vincent College?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at St. Vincent College's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of St. Vincent College'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 St. Vincent College’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at St. Vincent College's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 323 acres it covers and 656 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- St. Vincent College's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- St. Vincent College's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 30 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 656 documented contamination sites on the federal record near St. Vincent College, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- St. Vincent College's boundary and the 323 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at St. Vincent College's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of St. Vincent Collegelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so St. Vincent College's 323 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Westmoreland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Westmoreland 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 Westmoreland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among St. Vincent College's 323 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of St. Vincent College you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 323 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 St. Vincent College-wide figureread your own land →
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