Lawrence County, in Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Lawrence County lies within the Ohio River Valley and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lawrence County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lawrence 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 Lawrence County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lawrence County — the short answer
Lawrence County, Ohio: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 290K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 290K 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 7a is Lawrence County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lawrence County's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Lawrence County
Across a year, Lawrence County accumulates about 3,581 growing degree days above 50°F, about 659 more than the middle Ohio county — ahead of 86 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 Lawrence County
Across Lawrence County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Upshur, Steinsburg, and Gilpin are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.5, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
8%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lawrence County
The USDA soil survey maps 91% of Lawrence County as well drained — but another 7% drains differently: 5% moderately well drained, 1% excessively drained.
Upshur is the most extensive named soil at 26% of mapped acres, then Steinsburg (17%) and Gilpin (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 Lawrence County
Each reading below is measured for Lawrence 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 Lawrence 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 Lawrence County runs about pH 4.6–5.5, 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
MeasuredLawrence County runs about 224 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
MeasuredLawrence County 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 Lawrence County is in
Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lawrence County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 224-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 Lawrence 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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Lawrence County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lawrence County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 95 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle3 documented records
- monarch butterfly24 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Lawrence County
USGS estimates 3,534 lb of Glyphosate on Lawrence County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (1,653 lb) and Acetochlor (628 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 Lawrence County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lawrence County — 241 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 12 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
Closest first, across Lawrence County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY MEDICAL CENTER AIDBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- R&D CARRYOUTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MAW MANNON''S COUNTRY KITCHENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SYMMES VALLEY LOCAL SCHOOL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- JAMES W. MORRISUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- HECLA WATER ASSOCIATION-PLANT PWSPFAS · 3.5 mi
- ORPHAN TANKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- MYERS' FASTLANE CONVENIENT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- FIELDS EXCAVATING INCBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- KB'S HAULING LLCBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- MEDICAL INNOVATION OLBH IMAGINGBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- R & R GROCERY & CARRY-OUT LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lawrence 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 Lawrence County.
Sources Checked
across Lawrence County
Severity Distribution
across Lawrence County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lawrence County, two things run higher than the national average across Lawrence County — Superfund (12 sites) and PFAS (4 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Lawrence 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 Lawrence County average
Your land is one point inside Lawrence County
Everything above resolves to Lawrence County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 290K 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 Lawrence County Average
Lawrence County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Lawrence County
- ●One soil character for all of Lawrence County
- ●Frost dates read at Lawrence County's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lawrence County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lawrence County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lawrence County, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lawrence County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lawrence County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lawrence County average
How we know this about Lawrence 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 Lawrence County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lawrence County
When does frost risk typically end in Lawrence County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lawrence County typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
How long is the growing season in Lawrence County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lawrence County sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 26, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lawrence County?
The federal record around Lawrence County runs heavier than most — 241 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (116), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.4 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 Lawrence County's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lawrence 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 Lawrence County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Lawrence County's own scale — its own ~224-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
- Lawrence County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lawrence County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lawrence CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 241 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lawrence County's boundary and the 290,172 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lawrence County sitting wholly inside the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Lawrence County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lawrence 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 Lawrence County — the ~224 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 Lawrence County's 290,172 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 Lawrence Countyread your own land →