Ashley, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Ashley, 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 Ashley 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 Ashley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ashley — the short answer
Ashley, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 422 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 422 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 Ashley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ashley's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ashley
Each reading below is measured for Ashley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAshley runs about 206 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
MeasuredAshley 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 Ashley is in
Ashley sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ashley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Delaware County.
What Grows in Ashley
Every plant below cleared Ashley's own zone 6a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ashley?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Ashley
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Ashley, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ashley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ashley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ASHLEY FOOD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CONRAIL - COLS LINE MP 104.34Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BUCKEYE VALLEY LOCAL SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ASHLEY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #14578Brownfields · 1500 ft
- TRINKETS & TREASURESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RENERGYToxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- ODNR DELAWARE WILDLIFE AREA HEADUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- OLENTANGY WILDLIFE EXP STATIONBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- PERU TOWNSHIP GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- MARENGO MARATHON MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- RED SHIELD ASSET MANAGEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ashley'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 Ashley.
Total Sites
129
within ~10 miles of Ashley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ashley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ashley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ashley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of Ashley. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ashley
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 Ashley average
Your land is one point inside Ashley
Everything above resolves to Ashley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 422 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 Ashley Average
Ashley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ashley
- ●One soil character for all of Ashley
- ●Frost dates read at Ashley's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ashley's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ashley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ashley, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ashley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ashley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ashley average
How we know this about Ashley
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 Ashley’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 Ashley
When does frost risk typically end in Ashley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ashley typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Ashley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ashley typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ashley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ashley sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 19, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ashley?
The federal record around Ashley is a meaningful one — 129 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ashley?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ashley's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ashley'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 Ashley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ashley's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 422 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ashley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ashley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 2 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ashley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ashley's boundary and the 422 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ashley's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ashleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ashley's 422 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Delaware County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Delaware 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 Delaware County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ashley's 422 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ashley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 422 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ashley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioAshley sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides