Athens County, in Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Athens County lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Athens County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Athens 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 Athens County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Athens County — the short answer
Athens County, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 322K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 322K 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 Athens County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Athens County's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Athens County
Across a year, Athens County accumulates about 3,121 growing degree days above 50°F, about 199 more than the middle Ohio county — ahead of 65 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 Athens County
Across Athens County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Westmoreland, Guernsey, and Dekalb are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.9, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
4%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Athens County
The USDA soil survey maps 75% of Athens County as well drained — but another 25% drains differently: 15% moderately well drained, 7% excessively drained.
Westmoreland is the most extensive named soil at 25% of mapped acres, then Guernsey (15%) and Dekalb (6%).
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 Athens County
Each reading below is measured for Athens 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 Athens County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Athens County runs about pH 5.3–5.9, 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
MeasuredAthens County runs about 199 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
MeasuredAthens 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 Athens County is in
Athens County sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Athens County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Athens County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 199-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 Athens County?
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 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Athens County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Athens County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 47 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle9 documented records
- monarch butterfly27 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Athens County
USGS estimates 5,367 lb of Glyphosate on Athens County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (1,072 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,031 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 Athens County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Athens County — 241 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Athens County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Athens County
Closest first, across Athens County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DIAGNOSTIC HYBRIDS INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 550 ft
- PEPSI-COLA OF ATHENSBrownfields · 750 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #8619Brownfields · 2000 ft
- PEPSI COLA BOTTLING CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ORTHO-CLINICAL DIAGNOSTICS INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- COLUMBIA GAS OF OHIO, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #1125Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- LOWES #1866Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- TAYLOR NISSANUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HOLZER HEALTH SYSTEMBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- OHIO UNIVERSITY - SEAM LABORATORYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- GO-MART STORE #111Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Athens 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 Athens County.
Total Sites
241
across Athens County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Athens County
Severity Distribution
across Athens County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Athens County, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites across Athens County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Athens 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 Athens County average
Your land is one point inside Athens County
Everything above resolves to Athens County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 322K 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 Athens County Average
Athens County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Athens County
- ●One soil character for all of Athens County
- ●Frost dates read at Athens County's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Athens County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Athens County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Athens County, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Athens County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Athens County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Athens County average
How we know this about Athens 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 Athens County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Athens County
When does frost risk typically end in Athens County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Athens County 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.
How long is the growing season in Athens County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Athens County sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 13, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Athens County?
The federal record around Athens County is a meaningful one — 241 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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.
Everything above is measured at Athens County's scale — its 6b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Athens 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 Athens County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Athens County's own scale — its own ~199-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 241 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Athens County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Athens County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Athens CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 241 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Athens County's boundary and the 322,331 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Athens County sitting wholly inside the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Athens County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Athens 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 Athens County — the ~199 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 Athens County's 322,331 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 241 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 Athens Countyread your own land →