Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Vandergrift, 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 Vandergrift 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 Vandergrift — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vandergrift — the short answer
Vandergrift, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 871 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- 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
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 871 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 Vandergrift's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vandergrift's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vandergrift
Each reading below is measured for Vandergrift itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVandergrift runs about 203 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
MeasuredVandergrift 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 Vandergrift is in
Vandergrift sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vandergrift's own centroid rather than borrowed from Westmoreland County.
What Grows in Vandergrift
Every plant below cleared Vandergrift's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vandergrift?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (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 Vandergrift
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Vandergrift, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Vandergrift
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vandergrift. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VANDERGRIFT BORO MAINT BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- FERRANTE OLDSMOBILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BYERS BUSING BYERS TAXI SVCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BYERS TAXI SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SOLOMONS MINI MART 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- QUALITY CARBIDE CO OF PABrownfields · 2000 ft
- SOLOMONS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KEDDIE CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ALLEGHENY LUDLUM CORPToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- ALLEGHENY LUDLUM CORPBrownfields · 2200 ft
- KEDDIE CHEVROLETBrownfields · 2500 ft
- NAPA AUTO PARTS 052Brownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vandergrift'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 Vandergrift.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vandergrift
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vandergrift
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vandergrift, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Vandergrift. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Vandergrift
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 Vandergrift average
Your land is one point inside Vandergrift
Everything above resolves to Vandergrift as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 871 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 Vandergrift Average
Vandergrift Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Vandergrift
- ●One soil character for all of Vandergrift
- ●Frost dates read at Vandergrift's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vandergrift's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vandergrift
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vandergrift averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vandergrift — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vandergrift average
How we know this about Vandergrift
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 Vandergrift’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 Vandergrift
When does frost risk typically end in Vandergrift?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vandergrift typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Vandergrift?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vandergrift 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 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vandergrift?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vandergrift sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 19, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vandergrift?
The federal record around Vandergrift is a meaningful one — 430 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (215), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Vandergrift?
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 Vandergrift's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vandergrift'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 Vandergrift’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Vandergrift's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 871 acres it covers and 430 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vandergrift's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vandergrift's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 2 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 430 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vandergrift, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vandergrift's boundary and the 871 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vandergrift's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Vandergriftlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vandergrift's 871 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Westmoreland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Westmoreland 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 Westmoreland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vandergrift's 871 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vandergrift you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 871 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 Vandergrift-wide figureread your own land →
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