Continental, 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Continental, 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 Continental 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 Continental — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Continental — the short answer
Continental, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 766 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 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 766 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 Continental's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Continental's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Continental
Each reading below is measured for Continental itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredContinental runs about 203 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
MeasuredContinental 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 Continental is in
Continental sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Continental's own centroid rather than borrowed from Putnam County.
What Grows in Continental
Every plant below cleared Continental's own zone 6a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Continental?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 31 — 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 Continental
Survey cells within 31 miles of Continental checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 44 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Continental
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Continental. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DUPONT SERVICE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CONTINENTAL TELEPHONE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- H & K CHEVY PONTIAC BUICKBrownfields · 1900 ft
- NEW MILLENIUM BUILDING SYSTEMSToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #10222Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- FORMER KOCKEL'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FAT BOY CARRY OUTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- HENRY COUNTY LAND REUTILIZATION CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- VERHOFF MACHINE & WELDINGBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- 1ST EAGLE EXPRESSBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- BRAUN INDUSTRIES, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- MORNING STAR EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Continental'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 Continental.
Total Sites
36
within ~10 miles of Continental
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Continental
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Continental
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Continental, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Continental. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Continental
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 Continental average
Your land is one point inside Continental
Everything above resolves to Continental as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 766 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 Continental Average
Continental Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Continental
- ●One soil character for all of Continental
- ●Frost dates read at Continental's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Continental's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Continental
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Continental, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Continental averages can't show:
We read public map data around Continental — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Continental average
How we know this about Continental
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 Continental’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 Continental
When does frost risk typically end in Continental?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Continental 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 Continental?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Continental typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Continental?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Continental sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 17, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Continental?
The federal record around Continental is light — 36 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Continental?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Continental's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Continental'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 Continental’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Continental's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 766 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Continental's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Continental's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 31 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Continental, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Continental's boundary and the 766 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Continental's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Continental 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 Continental's 766 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Putnam County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Putnam 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 Putnam County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Continental's 766 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Continental you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 766 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Continental-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioContinental sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides