Brookville, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Brookville, 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 Brookville 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 Brookville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brookville — the short answer
Brookville, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- 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
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Brookville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brookville's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brookville
Each reading below is measured for Brookville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrookville runs about 211 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
MeasuredBrookville 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 Brookville is in
Brookville sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brookville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Brookville
Every plant below cleared Brookville's own zone 6a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brookville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (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 Brookville
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Brookville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brookville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brookville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROOKVILLE MUNICIPALITY PWSPFAS · 1400 ft
- SUMMERS BEHNKEN HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RAQBA INC BROOKVILLE EXPRESS.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BROOKVILLE LUBE & SERVICE CTRBrownfields · 1500 ft
- EVELYN HEETER ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MCGREGOR ASSOCIATES INCToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- MCGREGOR ASSOCIATES INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- FRONTIERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #3168Brownfields · 1800 ft
- OMESH PROPERTIES LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- E AND ES GARAGEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MCMAKEN LAUNDROMATBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brookville'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 Brookville.
Total Sites
442
within ~10 miles of Brookville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brookville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brookville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brookville, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Brookville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Brookville
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 Brookville average
Your land is one point inside Brookville
Everything above resolves to Brookville 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 city 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 Brookville Average
Brookville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Brookville
- ●One soil character for all of Brookville
- ●Frost dates read at Brookville's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brookville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brookville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brookville, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brookville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brookville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brookville average
How we know this about Brookville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Brookville’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Brookville
When does frost risk typically end in Brookville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brookville typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Brookville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brookville 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 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brookville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brookville sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 20, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brookville?
The federal record around Brookville is a meaningful one — 442 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (225), the nearest PFAS 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 Brookville?
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 Brookville's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brookville'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 Brookville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brookville's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,623 acres it covers and 442 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brookville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brookville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 3 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 442 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brookville, the closest PFAS record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brookville's boundary and the 2,623 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brookville's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brookvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brookville's 2,623 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brookville's 2,623 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brookville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,623 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Brookville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioBrookville sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides