West Hills, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in West 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 West 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 West Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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West Hills — the short answer
West Hills, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 West Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Hills's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Hills
Each reading below is measured for West Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWest Hills runs about 194 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
MeasuredWest Hills 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 West Hills is in
West Hills sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at West Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Armstrong County.
What Grows in West Hills
Every plant below cleared West Hills's own zone 6b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West Hills?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around West Hills
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from West Hills, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near West Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HICKORY LANE SEW PUMP STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BURFORDS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- BP OIL COMPANY 07236Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- WEST PENN POWER CO-GEN OFF CABIN HILLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MAPLE LANE SEW PUMP STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DIELECTRIC SOLUTIONS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- IA CONST CORP TARRTOWNBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- AGWAY KITTANNINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BMG PLT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PJ GRECO SONS OF KITTANINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ALLEGHENY MANORBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- BRADIGANS RT 268 KARDGARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West 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 West Hills.
Total Sites
255
within ~10 miles of West Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West Hills, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of West Hills — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (159 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in West 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 West Hills average
Your land is one point inside West Hills
Everything above resolves to West Hills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 West Hills Average
West Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across West Hills
- ●One soil character for all of West Hills
- ●Frost dates read at West Hills's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Hills's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Hills, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Hills average
How we know this about West 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 West 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 West Hills
When does frost risk typically end in West Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Hills typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in West Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Hills typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Hills sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 15, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Hills?
The federal record around West Hills is a meaningful one — 255 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (159), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 West Hills?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at West Hills's scale — its 6b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West 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 West Hills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at West Hills's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,086 acres it covers and 255 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- West Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 29 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 255 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Hills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Hills's boundary and the 2,086 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at West Hills's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of West Hillslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so West Hills's 2,086 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Armstrong County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Armstrong 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 Armstrong County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among West Hills's 2,086 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West 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 2,086 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 West Hills-wide figureread your own land →
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