Brady Lake, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brady 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 Brady 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 Brady Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brady Lake — the short answer
Brady Lake, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 848 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- 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
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 848 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 Brady Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brady Lake's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brady Lake
Each reading below is measured for Brady Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrady Lake runs about 212 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
MeasuredBrady Lake 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 Brady Lake is in
Brady Lake sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brady Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Portage County.
What Grows in Brady Lake
Every plant below cleared Brady Lake's own zone 6a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brady 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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (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 Brady Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Brady Lake, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brady Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brady Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PO-123 OHNitrate · 0.5 mi
- DAVOOD HAGHIGHIBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- KIALBAN BUICK GMC TRUCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KLABEN BODY SHOP KENTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SORBOTHANE INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FORMER MCVAY TRANSFERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PARTA-KENT STATE UNIV CAMPUS BUS SERVICEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ALPHAMICRON INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- HOP-INUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SUNOCO SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PENSKE AUTO CENTER NO 3293Brownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brady 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 Brady Lake.
Total Sites
1,133
within ~10 miles of Brady Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brady Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brady Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brady Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Brady Lake — Toxics Release Inventory (131 sites) and Superfund (17 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 Brady 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 Brady Lake average
Your land is one point inside Brady Lake
Everything above resolves to Brady Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 848 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 Brady Lake Average
Brady Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Brady Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Brady Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Brady Lake's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brady Lake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brady Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brady Lake, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brady Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brady Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brady Lake average
How we know this about Brady Lake
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 Brady 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 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 Brady Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Brady Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brady Lake typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Brady Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brady Lake 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 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brady Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brady Lake sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 25, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brady Lake?
The federal record around Brady Lake is a meaningful one — 1,133 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (498), 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 Brady Lake?
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 Brady Lake's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brady 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 Brady Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brady Lake's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 848 acres it covers and 1,133 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brady Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brady Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 8 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,133 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brady Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brady Lake's boundary and the 848 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brady Lake's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brady Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brady Lake's 848 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Portage County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Portage 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 Portage County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brady Lake's 848 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brady 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 848 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 Brady Lake-wide figureread your own land →