Bolton, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bolton, 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 Bolton 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 Bolton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bolton — the short answer
Bolton, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 484 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- 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
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 484 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 Bolton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bolton's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bolton
Each reading below is measured for Bolton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBolton runs about 203 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
MeasuredBolton 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 Bolton is in
Bolton sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bolton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stark County.
What Grows in Bolton
Every plant below cleared Bolton's own zone 6a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bolton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Bolton
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Bolton, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bolton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bolton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALTERCARE OF ALLIANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ASHLAND BRAND MKTG #612-000Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 823 CARSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FORMER STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- K & S AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CRANE PLUMBINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MAC TRAILER MFG. INC. (1576001906)Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- UNITED STATES CAN CO *Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- UNIVERSAL VISION SYSTEMS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ALLIANCE STEEL PRODUCTS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CITY OF ALLIANCE WATER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GMIToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bolton'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 Bolton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bolton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bolton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bolton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bolton — Toxics Release Inventory (28 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Bolton
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 Bolton average
Your land is one point inside Bolton
Everything above resolves to Bolton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 484 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 Bolton Average
Bolton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bolton
- ●One soil character for all of Bolton
- ●Frost dates read at Bolton's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bolton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bolton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bolton, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bolton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bolton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bolton average
How we know this about Bolton
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 Bolton’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 Bolton
When does frost risk typically end in Bolton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bolton typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Bolton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bolton 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 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bolton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bolton sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 20, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bolton?
The federal record around Bolton is a meaningful one — 343 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (181), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Bolton?
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 Bolton's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bolton'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 Bolton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bolton's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 484 acres it covers and 343 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bolton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bolton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Nov 3 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 343 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bolton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bolton's boundary and the 484 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bolton's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Boltonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bolton's 484 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stark 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 Stark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bolton's 484 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bolton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 484 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Bolton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioBolton sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides