Baltimore, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Baltimore, 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 Baltimore 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 Baltimore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Baltimore — the short answer
Baltimore, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- 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
- ~208
- 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 6b is Baltimore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baltimore's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baltimore
Each reading below is measured for Baltimore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBaltimore 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
MeasuredBaltimore 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 Baltimore is in
Baltimore sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Baltimore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fairfield County.
What Grows in Baltimore
Every plant below cleared Baltimore'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 Baltimore?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Baltimore
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Baltimore, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Baltimore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baltimore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OHIO PAPERBOARD CORPORATIONBrownfields · 450 ft
- OHIO PAPERBOARD CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 450 ft
- BALTIMORE CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- GAYLORD CONTAINER BOX SHOPToxics Release Inventory · 650 ft
- SALTWORKS WATER CONDITIONINGBrownfields · 900 ft
- LIBERTY UNION THURSTON SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SNACK BOX FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FORMER TRUCKING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HMH TRANSPORTATION, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LIBERTY TWP TRUSTEESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BALTIMORE MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BASIL LUMBER YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baltimore'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 Baltimore.
Total Sites
378
within ~10 miles of Baltimore
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baltimore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baltimore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baltimore, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Baltimore. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Baltimore
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 Baltimore average
Your land is one point inside Baltimore
Everything above resolves to Baltimore 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 Baltimore Average
Baltimore Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Baltimore
- ●One soil character for all of Baltimore
- ●Frost dates read at Baltimore's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baltimore's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baltimore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baltimore, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baltimore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baltimore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baltimore average
How we know this about Baltimore
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 Baltimore’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 Baltimore
When does frost risk typically end in Baltimore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baltimore typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Baltimore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baltimore 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 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baltimore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baltimore sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 19, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baltimore?
The federal record around Baltimore is a meaningful one — 378 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (188), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Baltimore?
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 Baltimore's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baltimore'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 Baltimore’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Baltimore's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,429 acres it covers and 378 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baltimore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baltimore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 2 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 378 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baltimore, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baltimore's boundary and the 1,429 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 Baltimore's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Baltimorelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Baltimore's 1,429 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairfield 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 Fairfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baltimore's 1,429 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baltimore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,429 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Baltimore-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioBaltimore sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides