Crooksville, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Crooksville, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Crooksville lot. 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 Crooksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crooksville — the short answer
Crooksville, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Crooksville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crooksville's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crooksville
Each reading below is measured for Crooksville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrooksville runs about 196 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
MeasuredCrooksville 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 Crooksville is in
Crooksville sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Crooksville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Perry County.
What Grows in Crooksville
Every plant below cleared Crooksville's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crooksville?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Crooksville
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Crooksville, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Crooksville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crooksville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CERCO I, INC. CESCO PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- CERCO I, INC. CESCO PLANTBrownfields · 900 ft
- VILLAGE OF CROOKSVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FORMER ELLIOTT LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- OHIO POWER CROOKSVILLE SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CIRCLE K #5356Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FRAME'S MARKET, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CROOKSVILLE SCHOOLS BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HULL POTTERYSuperfund · 1600 ft
- PCC AIRFOILS LLC - CROOKSVILLEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- PCC AIRFOILS LLC - CROOKSVILLEToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- FORMER WATT POTTERYSuperfund · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crooksville'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 Crooksville.
Total Sites
135
within ~10 miles of Crooksville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crooksville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crooksville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crooksville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Crooksville — Superfund (10 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 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 Crooksville
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 Crooksville average
Your land is one point inside Crooksville
Everything above resolves to Crooksville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Crooksville Average
Crooksville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Crooksville
- ●One soil character for all of Crooksville
- ●Frost dates read at Crooksville's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crooksville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crooksville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crooksville, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crooksville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crooksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crooksville average
How we know this about Crooksville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Crooksville’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Crooksville
When does frost risk typically end in Crooksville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crooksville typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Crooksville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crooksville typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crooksville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crooksville sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 14, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crooksville?
The federal record around Crooksville is a meaningful one — 135 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crooksville?
From about Sep 28 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crooksville's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crooksville's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Crooksville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Crooksville's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,039 acres it covers and 135 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crooksville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crooksville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 28 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 135 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crooksville, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crooksville's boundary and the 1,039 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crooksville's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Crooksvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crooksville's 1,039 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perry County
- The growing challenges every Ohio grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Ohio
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Perry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crooksville's 1,039 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crooksville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,039 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Crooksville-wide figureread your own land →
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