Avon Lake, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Avon Lake, 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 Avon Lake 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 Avon Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Avon Lake — the short answer
Avon Lake, Ohio: USDA zone 7a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 7a is Avon Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Avon Lake's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Avon Lake
Each reading below is measured for Avon Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAvon Lake runs about 238 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
MeasuredAvon Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Avon Lake is in
Avon Lake sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Avon Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lorain County is mostly Erie Drift Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Avon Lake
Every plant below cleared Avon Lake's own zone 7a and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Avon Lake?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Avon Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Avon Lake, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Avon Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Avon Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILLIAM HUBERTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- WATER WHEEL CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WALGREENS #6588Brownfields · 950 ft
- 508 AVON BELDEN AVON LAKE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SPEEDWAY SUPERAMERICA 3528Brownfields · 1000 ft
- AVON LAKE CITY PWSPFAS · 1100 ft
- LEHIGH 508 AVON BELDENBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SPEEDWAY #3528Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AVON LAKE FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CENTURY TELEPHONE CO. OF OHIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SISSONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- RIDGE CLEANERS - POSH CLEANERS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Avon Lake'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 Avon Lake.
Total Sites
988
within ~10 miles of Avon Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Avon Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Avon Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Avon Lake, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 73 sites within ~10 miles of Avon Lake. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Avon Lake
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 Avon Lake average
Your land is one point inside Avon Lake
Everything above resolves to Avon Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 city 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 Avon Lake Average
Avon Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Avon Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Avon Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Avon Lake's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Avon Lake's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Avon Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Avon Lake, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Avon Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Avon Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Avon Lake average
How we know this about Avon Lake
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Avon Lake’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Avon Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Avon Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Avon Lake typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Avon Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Avon Lake typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Avon Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Avon Lake sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Nov 9, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Avon Lake?
The federal record around Avon Lake is a meaningful one — 988 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (528), 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 Avon Lake?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Avon Lake's scale — its 7a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Avon Lake'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 Avon Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Avon Lake's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,123 acres it covers and 988 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Avon Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Avon Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 23 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 988 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Avon Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Avon Lake's boundary and the 7,123 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Avon Lake sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Avon Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Avon Lake's 7,123 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lorain County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lorain 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 Lorain County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Avon Lake's 7,123 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Avon Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,123 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 Avon Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Growing region
Nearby growing guides