Summerville, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Summerville, 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 Summerville 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 Summerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Summerville — the short answer
Summerville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 381 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 381 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 Summerville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Summerville's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Summerville
Each reading below is measured for Summerville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSummerville 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
MeasuredSummerville 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 Summerville is in
Summerville sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Summerville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Summerville
Every plant below cleared Summerville'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 Summerville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Summerville
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Summerville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Summerville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Summerville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEAVER TWP SPVRUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- GLEN GERY CORPORATION HANLEY PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- GLEN GERY CORPORATION HANLEY PLANTBrownfields · 950 ft
- UNI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CARRIER SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SMITH VALLEY MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ACE MOTOR FREIGHTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GLEN GERY CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- JE 43Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- JE 64Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- JE 42Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- JE 44Nitrate · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Summerville'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 Summerville.
Total Sites
171
within ~10 miles of Summerville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Summerville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Summerville
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Summerville
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 Summerville average
Your land is one point inside Summerville
Everything above resolves to Summerville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 381 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 Summerville Average
Summerville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Summerville
- ●One soil character for all of Summerville
- ●Frost dates read at Summerville's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Summerville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Summerville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Summerville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Summerville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Summerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Summerville average
How we know this about Summerville
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 Summerville’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 Summerville
When does frost risk typically end in Summerville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Summerville typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Summerville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Summerville typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Summerville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Summerville sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 12, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Summerville?
The federal record around Summerville shows 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), 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 Summerville?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Summerville's scale — its 6a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Summerville'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 Summerville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Summerville's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 381 acres it covers and 171 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Summerville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Summerville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 26 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 171 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Summerville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Summerville's boundary and the 381 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 Summerville's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Summervillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Summerville's 381 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Summerville's 381 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Summerville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 381 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 Summerville-wide figureread your own land →
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