Vanderbilt, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vanderbilt, 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 Vanderbilt 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 Vanderbilt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vanderbilt — the short answer
Vanderbilt, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 118 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- 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
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 118 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 6b is Vanderbilt's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vanderbilt's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vanderbilt
Each reading below is measured for Vanderbilt itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVanderbilt runs about 200 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
MeasuredVanderbilt sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Vanderbilt is in
Vanderbilt sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vanderbilt's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fayette County is mostly Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Vanderbilt
Every plant below cleared Vanderbilt's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vanderbilt?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Vanderbilt
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Vanderbilt, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Vanderbilt
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vanderbilt. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RUTH P CRAMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CTR INDEPENDENT NO 5 VANDERBILTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TA NELSON BUS LINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ROBERT H LYNNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TETCO N YOUGHIOGHENY LN9MP7.69Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- BURKARTS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- LINDEN HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ROUTE 201 COAL YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CONNELLSVILLE PRKG AUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- JPR III AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- FRANKLIN TWP FAYETTE CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- FORMER DAVIS MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vanderbilt'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 Vanderbilt.
Total Sites
468
within ~10 miles of Vanderbilt
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vanderbilt
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vanderbilt
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Vanderbilt
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 Vanderbilt average
Your land is one point inside Vanderbilt
Everything above resolves to Vanderbilt as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 118 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 Vanderbilt Average
Vanderbilt Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Vanderbilt
- ●One soil character for all of Vanderbilt
- ●Frost dates read at Vanderbilt's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vanderbilt's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vanderbilt
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vanderbilt, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vanderbilt averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vanderbilt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vanderbilt average
How we know this about Vanderbilt
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 Vanderbilt’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 Vanderbilt
When does frost risk typically end in Vanderbilt?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vanderbilt typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Vanderbilt?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vanderbilt 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 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vanderbilt?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vanderbilt sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 18, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vanderbilt?
The federal record around Vanderbilt is a meaningful one — 468 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (266), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Vanderbilt?
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 Vanderbilt's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vanderbilt'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 Vanderbilt’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Vanderbilt's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 118 acres it covers and 468 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vanderbilt's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vanderbilt's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 1 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 468 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vanderbilt, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vanderbilt's boundary and the 118 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Vanderbilt sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Vanderbiltlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vanderbilt's 118 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vanderbilt's 118 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vanderbilt you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 118 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Vanderbilt-wide figureread your own land →
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