Bryan, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Bryan, 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 Bryan 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 Bryan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bryan — the short answer
Bryan, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- 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 Bryan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bryan's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bryan
Each reading below is measured for Bryan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBryan runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBryan 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 Bryan is in
Bryan sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bryan's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Williams County is mostly Eastern Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bryan
Every plant below cleared Bryan's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bryan?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Bryan
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bryan checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 42 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bryan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bryan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LASSUS BROS OIL #06522Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LASSUS BROTHERS OIL NO 90520 *Brownfields · 800 ft
- BOBS SERVICE INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- BRYAN MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WILLIAMS LAND BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CLARK OIL STATION NO 1749Brownfields · 950 ft
- BARD MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- BARD MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INCToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- MAINTENANCE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BP OIL CO. #08849Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- JOHN KRALICEK JR PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- OHIO GAS CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bryan'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 Bryan.
Total Sites
219
within ~10 miles of Bryan
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bryan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bryan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bryan, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Bryan. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Bryan
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 Bryan average
Your land is one point inside Bryan
Everything above resolves to Bryan 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 Bryan Average
Bryan Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bryan
- ●One soil character for all of Bryan
- ●Frost dates read at Bryan's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bryan's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bryan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bryan, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bryan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bryan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bryan average
How we know this about Bryan
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 Bryan’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 Bryan
When does frost risk typically end in Bryan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bryan typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Bryan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bryan typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bryan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bryan sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 14, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bryan?
The federal record around Bryan is a meaningful one — 219 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Bryan?
From about Sep 28 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 Oct 28 (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 Oct 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bryan's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bryan'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 Bryan’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bryan's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,456 acres it covers and 219 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bryan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bryan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 28 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 219 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bryan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bryan's boundary and the 3,456 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bryan sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bryan 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 Bryan's 3,456 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Williams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Williams 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 Williams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bryan's 3,456 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bryan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,456 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Bryan-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioBryan sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides