Ada, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ada, 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 Ada 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 Ada — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ada — the short answer
Ada, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Ada's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ada's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ada
Each reading below is measured for Ada itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAda runs about 213 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAda 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 Ada is in
Ada sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ada's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hardin County.
What Grows in Ada
Every plant below cleared Ada's own zone 6a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ada?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around 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.
Documented around Ada
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ada checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 54 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ada
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ada. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STARVIN MARVIN NO 8520Brownfields · 600 ft
- BP OIL CO. #07401Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SPEEDWAY #8520Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BP OIL CO *Brownfields · 900 ft
- DAIRY MART # 353Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 1100 ft
- MIKE'S UNION 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- RILEY PARK SHRIDER ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- COLE MOTOR SALES INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- HUGHES BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2200 ft
- WILSON SPORTING GOODS.Toxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- WILSON SPORTING GOODS.Brownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ada'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 Ada.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Ada
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ada
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ada
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ada, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Ada. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ada
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 Ada average
Your land is one point inside Ada
Everything above resolves to Ada as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Ada Average
Ada Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ada
- ●One soil character for all of Ada
- ●Frost dates read at Ada's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ada's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ada
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ada, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ada averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ada — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ada average
How we know this about Ada
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 Ada’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 Ada
When does frost risk typically end in Ada?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ada typically lands around Apr 7, 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 Apr 28.
When is the first frost in Ada?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ada typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ada?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ada sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 23, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ada?
The federal record around Ada is a meaningful one — 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Ada?
From about Oct 7 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 Nov 6 (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 Nov 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ada's scale — its 6a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ada'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 Ada’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ada's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,364 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ada's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ada's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 6 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ada, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ada's boundary and the 1,364 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ada's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ada checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ada's 1,364 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hardin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hardin County
- The growing challenges every Ohio grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Ohio
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Hardin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ada's 1,364 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ada you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,364 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Ada-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioAda sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.