Three Springs, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Three Springs, 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 Three Springs 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 Three Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Three Springs — the short answer
Three Springs, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 789 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 789 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 Three Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Three Springs's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Three Springs
Each reading below is measured for Three Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredThree Springs 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
MeasuredThree Springs 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 Three Springs is in
Three Springs sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Three Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Huntingdon County.
What Grows in Three Springs
Every plant below cleared Three Springs'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 Three Springs?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Three Springs
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Three Springs, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Three Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Three Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEATTYS GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- SPRING FARMS ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- HIRAM WIBLE & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- THREE SPRINGS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WORLDCOM BUTLERS KNOB PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SOUTHERN HUNTINGDON HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SPENCERS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HU 428Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- EMIGHS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HU 112Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- HU 234Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- HU 282Nitrate · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Three Springs'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 Three Springs.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Three Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Three Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Three Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Three Springs — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (36 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Three Springs
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 Three Springs average
Your land is one point inside Three Springs
Everything above resolves to Three Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 789 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 Three Springs Average
Three Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Three Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Three Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Three Springs's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Three Springs's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Three Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Three Springs, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Three Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Three Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Three Springs average
How we know this about Three Springs
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 Three Springs’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 Three Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Three Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Three Springs typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Three Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Three Springs typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Three Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Three Springs sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 19, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Three Springs?
The federal record around Three Springs shows 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), 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 Three Springs?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Three Springs's scale — its 7a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Three Springs'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 Three Springs’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Three Springs's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 789 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Three Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Three Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 2 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Three Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Three Springs's boundary and the 789 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 Three Springs's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Three Springslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Three Springs's 789 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Huntingdon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Three Springs's 789 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Three Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 789 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 Three Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Growing region
Nearby growing guides