Ursina, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ursina, 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 Ursina 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 Ursina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ursina — the short answer
Ursina, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 576 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 576 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 Ursina's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ursina's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ursina
Each reading below is measured for Ursina itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUrsina 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
MeasuredUrsina 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 Ursina is in
Ursina sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ursina's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Ursina
Every plant below cleared Ursina'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 Ursina?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Ursina
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Ursina, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ursina
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ursina. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SO 869Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- TURKEYFOOT VALLEY AREA SCH DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PRIVATE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- TRESSLER ASHLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- YOUGHIOGHENY LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- LUTHER P MILLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HARTMANS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- FORMER HALLS MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- RIVERSIDE MOTOR SALESBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- SO 873Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- SO 107Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- ADDISON FARM & IND EQUIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ursina'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 Ursina.
Total Sites
79
within ~10 miles of Ursina
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ursina
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ursina
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ursina, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Ursina. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ursina
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 Ursina average
Your land is one point inside Ursina
Everything above resolves to Ursina as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 576 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 Ursina Average
Ursina Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ursina
- ●One soil character for all of Ursina
- ●Frost dates read at Ursina's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ursina's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ursina
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ursina, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ursina averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ursina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ursina average
How we know this about Ursina
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 Ursina’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 Ursina
When does frost risk typically end in Ursina?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ursina typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Ursina?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ursina typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ursina?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ursina sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 8, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ursina?
The federal record around Ursina shows 79 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles 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 Ursina?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ursina's scale — its 6a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ursina'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 Ursina’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ursina's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 576 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ursina's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ursina's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 22 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ursina, the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ursina's boundary and the 576 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 Ursina's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ursinalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ursina's 576 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ursina's 576 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ursina you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 576 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Ursina-wide figureread your own land →