Beaverdam, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Beaverdam, 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 Beaverdam 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 Beaverdam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Beaverdam — the short answer
Beaverdam, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 403 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 403 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 Beaverdam's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beaverdam's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beaverdam
Each reading below is measured for Beaverdam itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeaverdam runs about 215 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
MeasuredBeaverdam 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 Beaverdam is in
Beaverdam sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beaverdam's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allen County.
What Grows in Beaverdam
Every plant below cleared Beaverdam's own zone 6a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beaverdam?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Beaverdam
Survey cells within 31 miles of Beaverdam checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 51 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Beaverdam
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beaverdam. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YESTERDAYS BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- ODOT BEAVER DAM OUTPOSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- MIDTOWN MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- VILLAGE CYCLE ACCESSORIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BUCKEYE COMMERCIAL BODYBrownfields · 750 ft
- MASTER BLASTERSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- BEAVERDAM FLEET SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- BEAVERDAM FLYING J TR. PL #695Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #14807Brownfields · 1900 ft
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTER #457Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SPEEDWAY SUPERAMERICA LLC STORE NO 3547Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- SPEEDWAY #3547Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beaverdam'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 Beaverdam.
Total Sites
358
within ~10 miles of Beaverdam
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beaverdam
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beaverdam
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beaverdam, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Beaverdam — Toxics Release Inventory (29 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Beaverdam
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 Beaverdam average
Your land is one point inside Beaverdam
Everything above resolves to Beaverdam as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 403 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 Beaverdam Average
Beaverdam Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Beaverdam
- ●One soil character for all of Beaverdam
- ●Frost dates read at Beaverdam's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beaverdam's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beaverdam
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beaverdam, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beaverdam averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beaverdam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beaverdam average
How we know this about Beaverdam
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 Beaverdam’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 Beaverdam
When does frost risk typically end in Beaverdam?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beaverdam typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Beaverdam?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beaverdam typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beaverdam?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beaverdam sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 25, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beaverdam?
The federal record around Beaverdam is a meaningful one — 358 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (181), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Beaverdam?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Beaverdam's scale — its 6a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beaverdam'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 Beaverdam’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Beaverdam's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 403 acres it covers and 358 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beaverdam's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beaverdam's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 8 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 358 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beaverdam, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beaverdam's boundary and the 403 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beaverdam's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Beaverdam checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beaverdam's 403 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allen 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 Allen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beaverdam's 403 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beaverdam you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 403 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Beaverdam-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioBeaverdam sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides