I'm a bit north of you in the Lehigh Valley. There is a guy that gardens just south of Allentown, he also considers himself zone 6. this is from his website which I have linked below "The weather Our area is squarely in USDA zone 6, meaning winter temperatures don't typically drop below -10°F (-23°C). Philadelphia is a zone warmer, the Poconos a zone colder. And of course winter temperatures vary quite a bit from year to year - for several years recently, temperatures never dropped below 0°F, but last winter was characteristic of zone 6. We cannot count on a consistent snow cover to insulate the soil from the harshest temperatures, so marginally hardy plants are best mulched with a few inches of organic material. Typical last frost dates are around early May (so the freeze on May 21, 2003 caught us quite by surprise), and the first frost in fall occurs anywhere between mid-September and mid-October. That leaves enough of a gardening season to grow almost any vegetable, although heat-loving crops such as tomatoes, eggplants and peppers need an indoor headstart to start producing by mid-summer. Summers have been variable as well: in our eleven years in this garden, we have suffered through two disheartening years of drought, and two unusually wet summers. For the most part, though, we can count on some stretches of the warm season where supplemental water is needed to keep garden plants alive and happy. Every summer brings plenty of hot and sticky days when gardening isn't particularly pleasant, but many plants that can't survive the humidity of the Southeast do OK here." Here is a link that might be useful: Rob's Plants

When we look at "the most scientifically prepared country in the world" when it comes to earthquake and environmental safety and then look at the catastrophic (or as prez Obama said "potentially catastrophic" - he's obviously a global warming in-science-we-trust kinda guy) disaster that happened to Japan yesterday it helps to understand how meaningful and really insignificant setting absolute scientific parameters on God's creation is. During the practice of medicine for 32 years I quickly learned each person is an individual and science is all about theories based on groups of individuals and events driven by a One-Size-Fits-All mentality. A good example is a cancer patient, who will inevitably ask "what are may chances?". The lastest and greatest study may say they've only got a 10% chance of survival, but the truth is their chance is either 100% when they survive or 0% if they do not. Each year is "an individual" and if you have some moving measure unique to that year it is always going to be more accurate than the average of centuries of climatological data. Now the question is where can I find such a meter? They were literally everywhere when I was a farm boy going up and everybody watched them and planted accordingly with as near a never fail result as you can get with anything as labile as the seasons. We became a suburban sprawl society and most were considered in the way and got bulldozed so they are harder to find now but a few remain. Watch the pecan orchard nearest you(if they haven't all been killed to build your subdivision). When they bud you can very very reliably know the last frost has passed. If you find one maybe the government could put a web cam on it for us all to watch! They are so good at spending our money for us why not? LOL ;-)

Hi, this site gives April 3 for the frost date, earlier than the date I usually see. For Newark NJ, in the northern/central part of state. Keep in mind the micro-climate can have as much as a 10-degree or more difference. For ex I garden in a community garden which is wide open to the winds, and the last frost occurs there later than in the community in which I live. If your plants are sheltered, for example by your house, if they are on the eastern/southern side of the house, can considerably raise the temp. Here is a link that might be useful: Frost date NJ

Looks good for the Pittsburgh area. We're fifty miles south and use the 20th of May for the spring. Carol