Westwood, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Westwood, 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 Westwood 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 Westwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Westwood — the short answer
Westwood, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 826 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 826 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 Westwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Westwood's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Westwood
Each reading below is measured for Westwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWestwood runs about 195 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
MeasuredWestwood 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 Westwood is in
Westwood sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Westwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cambria County.
What Grows in Westwood
Every plant below cleared Westwood's own zone 6a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Westwood?
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 30 — 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 Westwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Westwood, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Westwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Westwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHEETZ 86 REBUILDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SHEETZ NO 86Brownfields · 2500 ft
- WESTWOOD CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JOHNSTOWN ARC NO 2Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- JOHNSTOWN USARC 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LOWER YODER MAINT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORES NO 5122Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- WESTWOOD GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SHEETZ 86Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ROY K THOMASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DURA DRY CLNRBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- ZUCCO CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Westwood'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 Westwood.
Total Sites
585
within ~10 miles of Westwood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
23 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Westwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Westwood
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 Westwood
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 Westwood average
Your land is one point inside Westwood
Everything above resolves to Westwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 826 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 Westwood Average
Westwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Westwood
- ●One soil character for all of Westwood
- ●Frost dates read at Westwood's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Westwood's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Westwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Westwood, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Westwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Westwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Westwood average
How we know this about Westwood
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 Westwood’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 Westwood
When does frost risk typically end in Westwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Westwood 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 Westwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Westwood typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Westwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Westwood sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 16, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Westwood?
The federal record around Westwood is a meaningful one — 585 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (299), 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 Westwood?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Westwood's scale — its 6a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Westwood'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 Westwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Westwood's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 826 acres it covers and 585 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Westwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Westwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 30 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 585 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Westwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Westwood's boundary and the 826 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Westwood's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Westwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Westwood's 826 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cambria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cambria 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 Cambria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Westwood's 826 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Westwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 826 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 Westwood-wide figureread your own land →