Washington Boro, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Washington Boro, 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 Washington Boro 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 Washington Boro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Washington Boro — the short answer
Washington Boro, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Washington Boro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Washington Boro's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Washington Boro
Each reading below is measured for Washington Boro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWashington Boro runs about 234 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
MeasuredWashington Boro 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 Washington Boro is in
Washington Boro sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Washington Boro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lancaster County.
What Grows in Washington Boro
Every plant below cleared Washington Boro's own zone 7a and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Washington Boro?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Washington Boro
Spotted lanternfly documented 0 miles from Washington Boro, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Washington Boro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Washington Boro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LN 558Nitrate · 2600 ft
- LN 1504Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- ROHRER DAIRY FARM CAFOCAFO · 0.7 mi
- LN 559Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- ABRAM G BARLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DEASCENTI DSPLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FRANKLIN VIEW FARMS DAIRY EXPANSIONCAFO · 1.0 mi
- FRANKLIN VIEW FARMSCAFO · 1.2 mi
- FRANKLIN STREET WASTEWATER PUMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TRYUM CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PE LEFEVER EXCAVATING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LASA BLUE ROCK WATER RESOURCE RECOVERY FACILITYBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Washington Boro'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 Washington Boro.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Washington Boro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Washington Boro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Washington Boro, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Washington Boro — CAFO (47 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (102 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Washington Boro
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 Washington Boro average
Your land is one point inside Washington Boro
Everything above resolves to Washington Boro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Washington Boro Average
Washington Boro Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Washington Boro
- ●One soil character for all of Washington Boro
- ●Frost dates read at Washington Boro's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Washington Boro's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Washington Boro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Washington Boro, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Washington Boro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Washington Boro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Washington Boro average
How we know this about Washington Boro
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 Washington Boro’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 Washington Boro
When does frost risk typically end in Washington Boro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Washington Boro typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Washington Boro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Washington Boro typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Washington Boro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Washington Boro sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Nov 2, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Washington Boro?
The federal record around Washington Boro runs heavier than most — 1,503 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (777), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Washington Boro?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Washington Boro's scale — its 7a band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Washington Boro'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 Washington Boro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Washington Boro's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,233 acres it covers and 1,503 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Washington Boro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Washington Boro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 16 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,503 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Washington Boro, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Washington Boro's boundary and the 1,233 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Washington Boro's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Washington Borolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Washington Boro's 1,233 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lancaster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lancaster 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 Lancaster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Washington Boro's 1,233 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Washington Boro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,233 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Washington Boro-wide figureread your own land →