Chesapeake, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chesapeake, 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 Chesapeake 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 Chesapeake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chesapeake — the short answer
Chesapeake, Ohio: USDA zone 7a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 303 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 303 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 7a is Chesapeake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chesapeake's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chesapeake
Each reading below is measured for Chesapeake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChesapeake runs about 221 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
MeasuredChesapeake sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Chesapeake is in
Chesapeake sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chesapeake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lawrence County.
What Grows in Chesapeake
Every plant below cleared Chesapeake's own zone 7a and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chesapeake?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Chesapeake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Chesapeake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 107 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chesapeake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chesapeake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHESAPEAKE CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- DANNY HOLSCHUHUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- DAVES CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #3966Brownfields · 800 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 3403Brownfields · 900 ft
- SUPERAMERICA NO 7101Brownfields · 900 ft
- RICH OIL, INC. #3701Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FAMILY MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 1200 ft
- KESSLERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SNIDERS USED CARSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PLATINUM MOTORSPORTSBrownfields · 1700 ft
- CITY OF HUNTINGTON GARAGE & LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chesapeake'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 Chesapeake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chesapeake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chesapeake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chesapeake, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Chesapeake. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Chesapeake
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 Chesapeake average
Your land is one point inside Chesapeake
Everything above resolves to Chesapeake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 303 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 Chesapeake Average
Chesapeake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Chesapeake
- ●One soil character for all of Chesapeake
- ●Frost dates read at Chesapeake's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chesapeake's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chesapeake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chesapeake, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chesapeake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chesapeake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chesapeake average
How we know this about Chesapeake
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 Chesapeake’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 Chesapeake
When does frost risk typically end in Chesapeake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chesapeake typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Chesapeake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chesapeake typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chesapeake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chesapeake sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 24, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chesapeake?
The federal record around Chesapeake is a meaningful one — 881 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (488), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Chesapeake?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chesapeake's scale — its 7a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chesapeake'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 Chesapeake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chesapeake's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 303 acres it covers and 881 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chesapeake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chesapeake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 7 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 881 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chesapeake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chesapeake's boundary and the 303 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chesapeake's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Chesapeake 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 Chesapeake's 303 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chesapeake's 303 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chesapeake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 303 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Chesapeake-wide figureread your own land →