Telford, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Telford, 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 Telford 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 Telford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Telford — the short answer
Telford, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 644 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 644 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 7a is Telford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Telford's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Telford
Each reading below is measured for Telford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTelford runs about 209 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTelford sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Telford is in
Telford sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Telford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bucks County.
What Grows in Telford
Every plant below cleared Telford's own zone 7a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Telford?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Telford
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Telford, first recorded 2016. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Telford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Telford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KEELER SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- HW KUHN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- HD SAMPEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- RUSSELL L TROUTUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ADVANCE AUTO PARTS NO 5689Brownfields · 1200 ft
- LUTHERN COMM AT TELFORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KS CLNRS INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- EARL M BARNDT ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MERRILL Y LANDISUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PS GROUPBrownfields · 1700 ft
- BERGEYS CHRYSLER PLYMOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BERGEYS USED CAR RETAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Telford'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 Telford.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Telford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Telford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Telford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Telford — Superfund (20 sites) and PFAS (13 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Telford
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 Telford average
Your land is one point inside Telford
Everything above resolves to Telford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 644 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 Telford Average
Telford Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Telford
- ●One soil character for all of Telford
- ●Frost dates read at Telford's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Telford's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Telford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Telford, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Telford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Telford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Telford average
How we know this about Telford
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 Telford’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 Telford
When does frost risk typically end in Telford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Telford typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Telford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Telford typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Telford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Telford sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 18, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Telford?
The federal record around Telford runs heavier than most — 1,440 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (726), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Telford?
From about Oct 2 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 Nov 1 (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 Nov 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Telford's scale — its 7a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Telford'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 Telford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Telford's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 644 acres it covers and 1,440 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Telford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Telford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 1 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,440 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Telford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Telford's boundary and the 644 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Telford's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Telfordlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Telford's 644 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bucks County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bucks 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 Bucks County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Telford's 644 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Telford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 644 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Telford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaTelford sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides