Ottawa 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Ottawa 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
Ottawa County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Ottawa 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 Ottawa County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ottawa County — the short answer
Ottawa County, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 163K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 163K 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 Ottawa County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ottawa County's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Ottawa County
Across a year, Ottawa County accumulates about 2,941 growing degree days above 50°F, about 19 more than the middle Ohio county — ahead of 47 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 Ottawa County
Across Ottawa County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Toledo, Nappanee, and Hoytville are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally very poorly drained with a silty clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Very poorly drained
Prime farmland
2%
Hydric soils
66%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Ottawa County
The USDA soil survey maps 52% of Ottawa County as very poorly drained — but another 31% drains differently: 22% somewhat poorly drained, 5% well drained.
Toledo is the most extensive named soil at 44% of mapped acres, then Nappanee (20%) and Hoytville (12%).
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 Ottawa County
Each reading below is measured for Ottawa 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 Ottawa County are very 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 Ottawa County runs about pH 6.2–6.5, 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
MeasuredOttawa County runs about 232 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
MeasuredOttawa 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 Ottawa County is in
Ottawa County sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Ottawa County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Ottawa County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 232-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 Ottawa 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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Ottawa County
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Ottawa County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly212 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Ottawa County
USGS estimates 53,427 lb of Glyphosate on Ottawa County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (14,193 lb) and Atrazine (13,198 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 Ottawa County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Ottawa County — 253 documented sites across 7 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 Ottawa 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 Ottawa County
Closest first, across Ottawa County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OHIO AIR NATL GUARD 200CERHSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- OHIO ARMY NATIONAL GUARD CAMP PERRYBrownfields · 2500 ft
- US ARMY NATIONAL GUARD CAMP PERRY RANGESToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- FORMER GAS STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- OHIO AIR NATIONAL GUARD - 200TH RED HORSEToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- GERAN ENTERPRISING, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- UTES #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- OMS #10 BLDG #2501Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- OTTAWA COUNTY - PORT CLINTON LANDFILL - GAS POWER STATIONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- EVGENIA, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- SHM LAKEFRONT LLCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- TRANSMISSIONS UNLIMITED INCBrownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ottawa 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 Ottawa County.
Total Sites
253
across Ottawa County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Ottawa County
Severity Distribution
across Ottawa County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ottawa County, two things run higher than the national average across Ottawa County — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (172 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ottawa 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 Ottawa County average
Your land is one point inside Ottawa County
Everything above resolves to Ottawa County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 163K 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 Ottawa County Average
Ottawa County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ottawa County
- ●One soil character for all of Ottawa County
- ●Frost dates read at Ottawa County's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ottawa County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Ottawa County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ottawa County, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ottawa County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ottawa County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ottawa County average
How we know this about Ottawa 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 Ottawa County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Ottawa County
When does frost risk typically end in Ottawa County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ottawa County typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Ottawa County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ottawa County sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Nov 5, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ottawa County?
The federal record around Ottawa County is a meaningful one — 253 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (172), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Ottawa County's scale — its 6b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ottawa 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 Ottawa County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Ottawa County's own scale — its own ~232-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 253 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ottawa County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ottawa County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Ottawa CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 253 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Ottawa County's boundary and the 162,998 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ottawa County sitting wholly inside the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Ottawa County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Ottawa 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 Ottawa County — the ~232 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 Ottawa County's 162,998 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 253 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 Ottawa Countyread your own land →