Cecil, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cecil, 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 Cecil 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 Cecil — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cecil — the short answer
Cecil, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 935 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 935 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 Cecil's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cecil's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cecil
Each reading below is measured for Cecil itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCecil runs about 201 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
MeasuredCecil 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 Cecil is in
Cecil sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cecil's own centroid rather than borrowed from Paulding County.
What Grows in Cecil
Every plant below cleared Cecil's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cecil?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Cecil
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cecil checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 31 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cecil
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cecil. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 127 MARAMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- HANSON AGGREGATEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- VAGABOND VILLAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- SYSTECH ENVIRONMENTAL CORPBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- 18 WHEELER TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSIONBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- HOLCIM US - PAULDING PLANT (INCLUDING SYSTECH ENV CORP)Toxics Release Inventory · 2.6 mi
- SANDERS AUTO REBUILDINGBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- WECK AIR INCBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- SPARTECH POLYCOM INCToxics Release Inventory · 4.8 mi
- SPARTECH POLYCOM INCBrownfields · 4.8 mi
- ALEX PRODUCTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cecil'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 Cecil.
Total Sites
104
within ~10 miles of Cecil
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cecil
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cecil
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cecil, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Cecil. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Cecil
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 Cecil average
Your land is one point inside Cecil
Everything above resolves to Cecil as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 935 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 Cecil Average
Cecil Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cecil
- ●One soil character for all of Cecil
- ●Frost dates read at Cecil's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cecil's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cecil
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cecil, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cecil averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cecil — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cecil average
How we know this about Cecil
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 Cecil’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 Cecil
When does frost risk typically end in Cecil?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cecil typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Cecil?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cecil typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cecil?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cecil sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 15, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cecil?
The federal record around Cecil shows 104 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cecil?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cecil's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cecil'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 Cecil’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cecil's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 935 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cecil's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cecil's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 29 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cecil, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cecil's boundary and the 935 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cecil's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cecil 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 Cecil's 935 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Paulding County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Paulding 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 Paulding County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cecil's 935 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cecil you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 935 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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 Cecil-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioCecil sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.