Medina County, in Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Medina County lies within the Northeast Ohio Snow Belt (Erie Drift Plain Uplands) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Medina County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Medina 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 Medina County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Medina County — the short answer
Medina County, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 270K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 270K 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 6a is Medina County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Medina County's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Medina County
Across a year, Medina County accumulates about 2,717 growing degree days above 50°F, about 205 fewer than the middle Ohio county — ahead of 14 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 Medina County
Across Medina County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Mahoning, Ellsworth, and Rittman are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.3, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
26%
Hydric soils
6%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Medina County
The USDA soil survey maps 48% of Medina County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 50% drains differently: 36% moderately well drained, 8% well drained.
Mahoning is the most extensive named soil at 22% of mapped acres, then Ellsworth (12%) and Rittman (9%).
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 Medina County
Each reading below is measured for Medina 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 Medina County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group 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 Medina County runs about pH 5.8–6.3, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMedina County runs about 209 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
MeasuredMedina County 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 Medina County is in
Medina County sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Medina County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Medina County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 209-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 Medina County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Medina County
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from Medina County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly78 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Medina County
USGS estimates 25,163 lb of Glyphosate on Medina County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (9,094 lb) and Metolachlor-s (8,339 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 Medina County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Medina County — 621 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (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 Medina 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 Medina County
Closest first, across Medina County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAIN STREET LIGHTING STANDARDS INCToxics Release Inventory · 150 ft
- VESCO OIL CORPORATIONBrownfields · 700 ft
- AMERI-CAL CORP. (1652050083)Brownfields · 1200 ft
- AMERI-CAL CORP. (1652050083)Toxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- TECHNOLOGY LEADERS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ROBINETTE INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- RICHEY INDUSTRIES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SHARON CO., LTD.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SHARON COMPANIES, LTD.Toxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- ROTON CORPORATION, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 3M MEDINA (1652050059)Brownfields · 1700 ft
- 3M MEDINA (1652050059)Toxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Medina 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 Medina County.
Total Sites
621
across Medina County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Medina County
Severity Distribution
across Medina County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Medina County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 80 sites across Medina County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Medina 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 Medina County average
Your land is one point inside Medina County
Everything above resolves to Medina County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 270K 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 Medina County Average
Medina County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Medina County
- ●One soil character for all of Medina County
- ●Frost dates read at Medina County's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Medina County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Medina County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Medina County, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Medina County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Medina County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Medina County average
How we know this about Medina 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 Medina County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Medina County
When does frost risk typically end in Medina County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Medina 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 Medina County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Medina County sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 23, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Medina County?
The federal record around Medina County is a meaningful one — 621 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (287), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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.
Everything above is measured at Medina County's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Medina 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 Medina County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Medina County's own scale — its own ~209-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 621 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Medina County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Medina County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Medina CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 621 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Medina County's boundary and the 269,733 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Medina County sitting wholly inside the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Medina County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Medina 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 Medina County — the ~209 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 Medina County's 269,733 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 621 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 Medina Countyread your own land →