The Hideout, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in The Hideout, 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 The Hideout 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 The Hideout — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Hideout — the short answer
The Hideout, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 The Hideout's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against The Hideout's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in The Hideout
Each reading below is measured for The Hideout itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredThe Hideout runs about 173 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
MeasuredThe Hideout 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 The Hideout is in
The Hideout sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at The Hideout's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wayne County.
What Grows in The Hideout
Every plant below cleared The Hideout's own zone 6a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in The Hideout?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 The Hideout
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from The Hideout, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near The Hideout
Closest first, within ~10 miles of The Hideout. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WN 152Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- WN 360Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- WN 162Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- WN 165Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- WN 164Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- WN 149Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- HOWE CONVENIENT MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- COWGERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- LAKE ARIEL DIAL OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- STERLING MTR COBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- ROAMINGWOOD SEWER AND WATERPFAS · 2.3 mi
- WN 385Nitrate · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from The Hideout'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 The Hideout.
Total Sites
283
within ~10 miles of The Hideout
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of The Hideout
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of The Hideout
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around The Hideout, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 154 sites within ~10 miles of The Hideout. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 The Hideout
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 Hideout average
Your land is one point inside The Hideout
Everything above resolves to The Hideout as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 The Hideout Average
The Hideout Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across The Hideout
- ●One soil character for all of The Hideout
- ●Frost dates read at The Hideout's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not The Hideout's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in The Hideout
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in The Hideout, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hideout averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Hideout — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hideout average
How we know this about The Hideout
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 The Hideout’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 The Hideout
When does frost risk typically end in The Hideout?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in The Hideout typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in The Hideout?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in The Hideout typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in The Hideout?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, The Hideout sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 3, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in The Hideout?
The federal record around The Hideout is a meaningful one — 283 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (154), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 The Hideout?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at The Hideout's scale — its 6a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of The Hideout'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 The Hideout’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at The Hideout's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,910 acres it covers and 283 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The Hideout's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- The Hideout's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 17 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 283 documented contamination sites on the federal record near The Hideout, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- The Hideout's boundary and the 3,910 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at The Hideout's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of The Hideoutlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so The Hideout's 3,910 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among The Hideout's 3,910 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of The Hideout you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,910 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 The Hideout-wide figureread your own land →