Ohio spans USDA hardiness zones 5b-7a, with a growing season of about 208 frost-free days — long enough to run two plantings of many vegetables and still ripen the heat-lovers.
In practice the season is written by 34-42 inches of annual rainfall, a median of roughly 2,921 growing-degree days (base 50°F), and about 2,500 winter chill hours for tree fruit. Dig almost anywhere and you'll meet glacial till, clay loam, silt loam, and muck; how quickly they shed water is the first thing to learn about them. No single calendar covers Ohio: Appalachia, Ohio River Valley, and Lake Erie Shore (Ohio North Coast) each open and close their seasons on their own schedule. Expect tomato, sweet corn, apple, and pawpaw to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded inUSDA PHZM•NOAA Climate Normals•USDA NRCS SSURGO•GDD (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•Chill hours (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•USDA hardiness sub-region map•EPA FRS•USDA PLANTS•Growable Ground suitability scoring
Ohio spans zones 5b-7a, but your yard sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Ohio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Distinct growing regions within Ohio — each has its own zones, soils, and signature crops.
Ohio: USDA zones 5b-7a, 182–239 frost-free days depending on the county, 88 counties.
The middle half of this state’s counties. Tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks past the last hard freeze. The shortest-season figure is Ohio's own county record — Columbiana County's measured 28°F normal, not a modeled floor.
Ohio does not have one growing season. Across the 1236 of its 1238 towns that carry their own 30-year record, the shortest measured season is Washingtonville's at 178 days and the longest is Lakewood's at 239 — a 61-day spread inside one state.
Neither end is a lone reading — another 28 towns measure within 10 days of Washingtonville and 45 sit within 10 days of Lakewood. These are real pockets, so the number to plant against is your own town's, not the state average.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record
Zone 5b-7a is Ohio's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ohio's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One answer for Ohio averages 88 counties whose growing seasons are 57 days apart — from 182 frost-free days in Columbiana County to 239 in Cuyahoga County. That is the same state, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your county sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 88 counties runs 201–214 days, with a median of 208 days — a 57-day span end to end.
Measured across 88 counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze. A county with no record of its own is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the state. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
The middle half of Ohio runs 201–214 frost-free days, and 38 of its 88 counties sit outside that — 18 on the short side, 20 on the long. A statewide planting date describes the middle well and the ends poorly, which is worth knowing before you follow one.
Under 201 frost-free days
18 counties
3 of 18 shown
The end of the state that sets the planting calendar — start seed indoors here and the season stretches to meet the crop.
201–214 frost-free days
50 counties
0 of 50 shown
The middle half of the state, and the part a single statewide date describes well.
Over 214 frost-free days
20 counties
3 of 20 shown
Long enough for a second succession of a quick crop after the first comes out.
Each county is placed by its own 28°F frost-free normal (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze), the same figure its own guide page publishes. Elevation, slope and cold-air drainage move a yard within its county as well — which is the part only your address resolves.
The soil types that dominate Ohio — how each drains decides more about crop success than almost anything else. Tap any soil to learn what it is and how to work with it. Each photo is a representative profile of that soil type; the named series is where it was documented, which is often another state.
Drainage
Variable by the shovelful. Sandy till drains freely; dense, compacted till (hardpan) can perch water above it after snowmelt and heavy rain.
What thrives
Apples, stone fruits, brambles, and the whole northern vegetable garden do well on till — much of New England and the upper Midwest farms it. Deep-rooted perennials work through the stony structure happily.
Loam tilted toward clay — heavier in the hand, slower to dry, and richer in nutrients than its sandier cousins. Clay particles carry a surface charge that holds fertilizer and minerals where roots can reach them.
Drainage
Slow to moderate. Water lingers in the root zone longer than in loam, which is a gift in dry summers and a challenge in wet springs.
What thrives
Heavy feeders that appreciate steady moisture — brassicas, corn, beans, and many fruit trees. Perennials with strong root systems establish well once they are through the first season.
Drainage
Moderate. Silt holds water well and releases it steadily, though the fine particles can crust after hard rain and compact under traffic.
What thrives
The full vegetable garden does well here, and small grains, corn, and leafy greens are classic silt-loam crops. Its steady moisture suits shallow-rooted plants that dislike drought stress.
Drainage
It holds water like a sponge by nature; farmed muck is managed with ditches and water control, and it can dry, shrink, and even blow when left bare.
What thrives
Muck is celebrated vegetable ground — onions, celery, carrots, lettuce, and greens grow to prize quality in it. Its loose, black tilth is what root and leaf crops dream of.
Soil weathered from shale — compressed ancient mud that splits into thin plates. It breaks down into clayey, often channery ground littered with flat rock fragments.
Drainage
Two-natured: the clay fraction holds water while the shale fragments and fractured bedrock open channels, so hillside shale soils often drain better than their texture suggests.
What thrives
Orchards and vineyards have long favored shale hillsides — the drainage and the heat the rock holds suit deep roots. Brambles, asparagus, and hardy perennials establish well.
Soil data: USDA NRCS SSURGO · Soil types explained
Plants well-suited to Ohio's climate, soils, and growing season — each links to its full growing profile.
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Across Ohio, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Apr 9, with the middle half of counties between Apr 5 and Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Oct 31 and Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
The plants Ohio put its name on — cultural emblems, not growing recommendations.
Scarlet carnation
Dianthus caryophyllus
Designated 1953.
Ohio buckeye
Aesculus glabra
Designated 1953.
Tomato
Designated 2009.
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in Ohio — a real per-state range, not just a zone match. Ordered by how closely each plant’s published hardiness range matches Ohio’s zones 5b-7a, so this is a shortlist by climate fit, not a ranking of which plants matter most here. Presence is statewide, so a plant may still be uncommon in your specific county; your state’s Cooperative Extension or a native-plant society is the local authority.
US-native plants whose hardiness range overlaps Ohio’s USDA zones 5b-7a but which USDA PLANTS doesn’t map to a single state range here. Zone overlap is a starting filter, not a range map.
What an experienced grower plans around here — each one has a move.
Heavy clay soils across much of northern Ohio require amendment for drainage
A raised bed fixes the drainage in one weekend — and amended clay repays the effort as some of the richest soil there is.
Variable spring weather with late frost risk through mid-May
Watch your local last-frost normal, not the region's — holding tender plants two extra weeks beats replanting a bed.
Japanese beetles and tomato hornworms are common garden pests
Hand-pick early, row-cover young plants, and skip broad sprays — extension IPM guides keep the beneficial insects on your side.
Wet springs can delay planting and promote root rot
Raised or mounded rows shed spring water and warm earlier — where puddles linger, drainage is the first project worth doing.
For cultivar selection, pest pressure, and planting-time guidance specific to Ohio, the Ohio State University Extension is the authoritative local source.
Safe to Grow Here?What the federal record shows across Ohio — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Ohio — 49,306 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 669 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Ohio carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Severity Distribution
across Ohio
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ohio, two things run higher than the national average across Ohio — Toxics Release Inventory (4,234 sites) and Superfund (669 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Everything above resolves to Ohio as a whole — a state whose own counties record seasons 57 days apart, and hardiness across zones 5b-7a. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 state 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 statewide average.
State averages sketch the shape. Your soil, sun exposure, drainage, and microclimate decide what actually takes. Pull a site-specific report for your exact parcel.
Enter your address. We read your soil, sun, drainage, and frost dates, then score 1,086 plants against the real conditions on your land.
Three things about your lot that Ohio averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ohio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ohio average
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read per county and aggregated to the state band; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each county’s own record; rainfall from NOAA Climate Normals; soils from USDA NRCS SSURGO; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above. Where a county carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Ohio spans USDA hardiness zones 5b-7a — which is to say winter's coldest night runs from about −15°F to 5°F depending where in Ohio you are, averaged over 1991–2020 (USDA PHZM 2023).
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Across Ohio, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Apr 9, with the middle half of counties between Apr 5 and Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Oct 31 and Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Across Ohio, the middle half of counties see their last hard freeze (28°F) between about Apr 5 and Apr 13, with a county median near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). 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 30.
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, growing seasons across Ohio's counties mostly run about 202 to 214 days, with a county median near 208 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender crops get a somewhat shorter practical window, since lighter frosts reach a few weeks past the hard-freeze dates on both ends.
Ohio's zones 5b-7a support a wide range — strong performers include Tomato, Sweet Corn, Apple, Pawpaw, and Buckeye. What actually takes on any one site comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage, and we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
Officially, Ohio spans USDA zones 5b-7a (USDA PHZM 2023) — but a zone is a 30-year average of winter's coldest night across an area, and it can't see any one yard. A south-facing slope, a tree line, or a low frost pocket can shift a single site by half a zone either way, which is why neighboring gardeners often quote different numbers. We read the conditions at your exact address — soil, sun, slope, and frost — and score 1,086 plants against what's actually there.
The federal record across Ohio runs heavier than most — 49,306 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (24,541) — 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.
Start with three facts. Ohio spans USDA zones 5b-7a, which sets what survives winter; last hard freezes range from about Apr 5 to Apr 13 across its counties (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and 49,306 documented sites sit on the federal record here, so a soil test before food beds is the smart first step. From there, matching plants to your actual soil and sun is the fun part.
Everything above is measured at Ohio's scale — its 5b-7a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ohio's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
6 of the readings below were taken at Ohio's own scale — the full zone 5b-7a span inside its borders, the 5 soil types that dominate its ground and 49,306 documented sites on its federal record; anything it cannot resolve at this scale is named below.
Measured here
What this page can’t tell you
Explore growing conditions by county — each has its own zone range and land area.
Explore growing conditions by city or town in Ohio.
