Atwater, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Atwater, 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 Atwater 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 Atwater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Atwater — the short answer
Atwater, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 670 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 670 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 Atwater's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Atwater's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Atwater
Each reading below is measured for Atwater itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAtwater runs about 208 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
MeasuredAtwater 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 Atwater is in
Atwater sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Atwater's own centroid rather than borrowed from Portage County.
What Grows in Atwater
Every plant below cleared Atwater's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Atwater?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Atwater
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Atwater, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Atwater
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Atwater. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ATWATER FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WATERLOO PRIMARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #11731Brownfields · 2500 ft
- CIRCLE K #5371Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- CIRCLE K #5371Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ATWATER TWP TRUSTEES ROAD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DAIRY MART #5145Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WATERLOO CENTRAL SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BFI OF OHIO / WILLOWCREEK LANDFILL (1667010007)Brownfields · 3.1 mi
- SUMMIT NATIONALSuperfund · 3.1 mi
- WAYNE M. POTTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- CENTURYLINKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Atwater'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 Atwater.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Atwater
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Atwater
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Atwater, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Atwater — Superfund (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (33 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Atwater
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 Atwater average
Your land is one point inside Atwater
Everything above resolves to Atwater as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 670 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 Atwater Average
Atwater Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Atwater
- ●One soil character for all of Atwater
- ●Frost dates read at Atwater's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Atwater's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Atwater
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Atwater, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Atwater averages can't show:
We read public map data around Atwater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Atwater average
How we know this about Atwater
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 Atwater’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 Atwater
When does frost risk typically end in Atwater?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Atwater typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Atwater?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Atwater typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Atwater?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Atwater sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 22, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Atwater?
The federal record around Atwater is a meaningful one — 368 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (193), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Atwater?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Atwater's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Atwater'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 Atwater’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Atwater's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 670 acres it covers and 368 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Atwater's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Atwater's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 5 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 368 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Atwater, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Atwater's boundary and the 670 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Atwater's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Atwaterlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Atwater's 670 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Portage County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Portage 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 Portage County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Atwater's 670 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Atwater you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 670 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Atwater-wide figureread your own land →