Ashtabula County, in Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Ashtabula County lies within the Lake Erie Shore (Ohio North Coast) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Ashtabula County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Ashtabula County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Ashtabula County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ashtabula County — the short answer
Ashtabula County, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 450K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 450K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 6b is Ashtabula County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ashtabula County's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One county, several growing seasons
Ashtabula County's hard-freeze record runs about 233 days between freezes — but that is the county-wide average, and several towns inside it carry a markedly different season in their own 30-year record: Orwell at about 199 days (against the county's ~233).
Those are measured records, not estimates. If you garden in one of these pockets, plant against your own town's season rather than the county's ~233-day average.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Only held-out towns carrying their own record are named — a town with no record of its own is absent rather than estimated, and a county with nothing qualifying shows no spread at all.
Heat in Ashtabula County
Across a year, Ashtabula County accumulates about 2,647 growing degree days above 50°F, about 275 fewer than the middle Ohio county — ahead of 5 of Ohio’s 88 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Ashtabula County
Across Ashtabula County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Mill, Platea, and Darien are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.4, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
4%
Hydric soils
41%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Ashtabula County
The USDA soil survey maps 43% of Ashtabula County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 53% drains differently: 35% poorly drained, 9% moderately well drained.
Mill is the most extensive named soil at 31% of mapped acres, then Platea (16%) and Darien (16%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Ashtabula County
Each reading below is measured for Ashtabula County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Ashtabula County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group C/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Ashtabula County runs about pH 5.0–5.4, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredAshtabula County runs about 233 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
MeasuredAshtabula County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Ashtabula County is in
Ashtabula County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Erie Drift Plain (86%) and Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands (14%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Ashtabula County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Ashtabula County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 233-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile.
Is it too late to plant in Ashtabula County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Ashtabula County
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Ashtabula County, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly911 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Ashtabula County
USGS estimates 36,420 lb of Glyphosate on Ashtabula County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (12,148 lb) and Metolachlor-s (11,222 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Ashtabula County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Ashtabula County — 599 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 21 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Ashtabula County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Ashtabula County
Closest first, across Ashtabula County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RESERVE ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- LINDE INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ASHTA CHEMICALS, INC.Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- ASHTA CHEMICALS, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- INEOS PIGMENTS USA, INC.- PLANT 1Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- INEOS PIGMENTS USA, INC.- PLANT 1Toxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- ESAB GROUP INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ESAB GROUP INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- ELKEM METALS CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MILLENNIUM INORGANIC CHEMICALS IUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PLASTICOLORS INC, PLANT 2Toxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- FRONTIER INDUSTRIAL CORPBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ashtabula County'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 Ashtabula County.
Sources Checked
across Ashtabula County
Severity Distribution
across Ashtabula County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ashtabula County, two things run higher than the national average across Ashtabula County — Superfund (21 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (73 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ashtabula County
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 Ashtabula County average
Your land is one point inside Ashtabula County
Everything above resolves to Ashtabula County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 450K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Ashtabula County Average
Ashtabula County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ashtabula County
- ●One soil character for all of Ashtabula County
- ●Frost dates read at Ashtabula County's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ashtabula County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Ashtabula County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ashtabula County, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ashtabula County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ashtabula County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ashtabula County average
How we know this about Ashtabula County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Ashtabula County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Ashtabula County
When does frost risk typically end in Ashtabula County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ashtabula County typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
How long is the growing season in Ashtabula County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ashtabula County sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Nov 10, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ashtabula County?
The federal record around Ashtabula County runs heavier than most — 599 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (303), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Ashtabula County's scale — its 6b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ashtabula County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Ohio's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Ashtabula County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Ashtabula County's own scale — its own ~233-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 599 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ashtabula County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ashtabula County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Ashtabula CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 599 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Ashtabula County's boundary and the 449,547 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Ashtabula County spans, Erie Drift Plain the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Ashtabula County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Ashtabula County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Ohio grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Ohio
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Ashtabula County — the ~233 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ashtabula County's 449,547 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 599 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Ashtabula Countyread your own land →