Ballville, 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ballville, 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 Ballville 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 Ballville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ballville — the short answer
Ballville, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Ballville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ballville's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ballville
Each reading below is measured for Ballville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBallville runs about 204 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
MeasuredBallville 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 Ballville is in
Ballville sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ballville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sandusky County.
What Grows in Ballville
Every plant below cleared Ballville's own zone 6a and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ballville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Ballville
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Ballville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ballville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ballville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FREMONT SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1500 ft
- 080 Friendship MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BALLVILLE E-Z SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- OHIO POWER CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ROBERT KIRWENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MR & MRS BERNARD HENRYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- S-118-B10 LOEW S OF FREMONT OHNitrate · 0.7 mi
- CITY OF FREMONT WATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CITY OF FREMONT WATER TREAT PLANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PROMEDICA MEMORIAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WEST END MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ballville'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 Ballville.
Total Sites
340
within ~10 miles of Ballville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ballville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ballville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ballville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ballville — Superfund (8 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (29 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 Ballville
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 Ballville average
Your land is one point inside Ballville
Everything above resolves to Ballville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Ballville Average
Ballville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ballville
- ●One soil character for all of Ballville
- ●Frost dates read at Ballville's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ballville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ballville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ballville, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ballville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ballville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ballville average
How we know this about Ballville
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 Ballville’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 Ballville
When does frost risk typically end in Ballville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ballville typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Ballville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ballville typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ballville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ballville sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 20, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ballville?
The federal record around Ballville is a meaningful one — 340 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (135), the nearest Brownfields 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 Ballville?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ballville's scale — its 6a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ballville'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 Ballville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ballville's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,895 acres it covers and 340 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ballville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ballville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 3 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 340 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ballville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ballville's boundary and the 2,895 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ballville's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ballvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ballville's 2,895 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sandusky County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sandusky 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 Sandusky County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ballville's 2,895 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ballville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,895 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Ballville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioBallville sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides