Woodward, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Woodward, 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 Woodward 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 Woodward — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Woodward — the short answer
Woodward, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 337 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 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 337 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 Woodward's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodward's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woodward
Each reading below is measured for Woodward itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoodward runs about 193 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
MeasuredWoodward 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 Woodward is in
Woodward sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Woodward's own centroid rather than borrowed from Centre County.
What Grows in Woodward
Every plant below cleared Woodward's own zone 6b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woodward?
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 28 — 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 Woodward
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Woodward, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Woodward
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woodward. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CE 518Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- DALE STOVER GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- PA DPW/LAURELTON CTRBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- HAINES TWP BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- VONADAS COAL YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- CE 603Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- COBURN BRIDGE PROJUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- CE 673Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- CHARLES DAWSON FACUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- GREENLANDS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- FREEDS GAS & OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- SUPERIOR PLUS ENERGY SVC REBERSBURG BULKUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodward'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 Woodward.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Woodward
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woodward
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woodward
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woodward, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Woodward — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (50 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Woodward
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 Woodward average
Your land is one point inside Woodward
Everything above resolves to Woodward as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 337 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 Woodward Average
Woodward Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Woodward
- ●One soil character for all of Woodward
- ●Frost dates read at Woodward's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodward's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woodward
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodward, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodward averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodward — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodward average
How we know this about Woodward
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 Woodward’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 Woodward
When does frost risk typically end in Woodward?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodward 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 Woodward?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woodward typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woodward?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodward sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 14, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woodward?
The federal record around Woodward shows 95 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Woodward?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Woodward's scale — its 6b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodward'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 Woodward’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Woodward's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 337 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodward's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woodward's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 28 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woodward, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woodward's boundary and the 337 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Woodward's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Woodwardlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woodward's 337 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Centre County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Centre 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 Centre County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woodward's 337 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woodward you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 337 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Woodward-wide figureread your own land →
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