Timber Hills, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Timber Hills, 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 Timber Hills 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 Timber Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Timber Hills — the short answer
Timber Hills, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 428 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 428 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 Timber Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Timber Hills's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Timber Hills
Each reading below is measured for Timber Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTimber Hills runs about 216 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
MeasuredTimber Hills 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 Timber Hills is in
Timber Hills sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Timber Hills's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lebanon County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Timber Hills
Every plant below cleared Timber Hills's own zone 7a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Timber Hills?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Timber Hills
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Timber Hills, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Timber Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Timber Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LB 1252Nitrate · 1300 ft
- COLEBROOK TERRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MT GRETNA BORO LEBANON CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WEABERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- COLLINS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LB 230Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- ROBERT L BRUBAKER CAMP ROAD FARMCAFO · 1.9 mi
- PA TURNPIKE FACILITY MOUNT GRENTA CABINS MAINTENANCEBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- PHILHAVEN HOSPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- TREE TOP GCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BROOK-CORNER DAIRY CAFOCAFO · 2.0 mi
- GRETNA VIEW FARMSCAFO · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Timber Hills'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 Timber Hills.
Total Sites
1,211
within ~10 miles of Timber Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Timber Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Timber Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Timber Hills, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 67 sites within ~10 miles of Timber Hills. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Timber Hills
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 Timber Hills average
Your land is one point inside Timber Hills
Everything above resolves to Timber Hills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 428 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 Timber Hills Average
Timber Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Timber Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Timber Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Timber Hills's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Timber Hills's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Timber Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Timber Hills, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Timber Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Timber Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Timber Hills average
How we know this about Timber Hills
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 Timber Hills’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 Timber Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Timber Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Timber Hills typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Timber Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Timber Hills typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Timber Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Timber Hills sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 23, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Timber Hills?
The federal record around Timber Hills is a meaningful one — 1,211 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (589), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Timber Hills?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Timber Hills's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Timber Hills'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 Timber Hills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Timber Hills's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 428 acres it covers and 1,211 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Timber Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Timber Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 6 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,211 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Timber Hills, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Timber Hills's boundary and the 428 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Timber Hills sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Timber Hillslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Timber Hills's 428 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lebanon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lebanon 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 Lebanon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Timber Hills's 428 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Timber Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 428 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Timber Hills-wide figureread your own land →
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