Drexel, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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.
Even in Drexel, 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 Drexel 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 Drexel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Drexel — the short answer
Drexel, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- 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 6b is Drexel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Drexel's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Drexel
Each reading below is measured for Drexel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDrexel runs about 217 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
MeasuredDrexel 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 Drexel is in
Drexel sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Drexel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Drexel
Every plant below cleared Drexel's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Drexel?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Drexel
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Drexel, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Drexel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Drexel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CALUMET CENTERBrownfields · 650 ft
- AUTO DISPOSAL SYSTEMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- VALICOR ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESBrownfields · 1200 ft
- VALICOR ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- APOLLO PROPANEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- G & R RETAIL LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FORMER GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #13205Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- QRP INC DBA AFFORDABLE AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5368Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- CLOSED FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Drexel'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 Drexel.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Drexel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Drexel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Drexel, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Drexel — Superfund (45 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (142 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 Drexel
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 Drexel average
Your land is one point inside Drexel
Everything above resolves to Drexel 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 Drexel Average
Drexel Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Drexel
- ●One soil character for all of Drexel
- ●Frost dates read at Drexel's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Drexel's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Drexel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Drexel, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Drexel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Drexel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Drexel average
How we know this about Drexel
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 Drexel’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 Drexel
When does frost risk typically end in Drexel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Drexel typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Drexel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Drexel typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Drexel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Drexel sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 22, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Drexel?
The federal record around Drexel runs heavier than most — 1,919 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (915), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Drexel?
From about Oct 6 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 Nov 5 (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 Nov 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Drexel's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Drexel'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 Drexel’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Drexel's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,398 acres it covers and 1,919 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Drexel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Drexel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 5 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,919 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Drexel, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Drexel's boundary and the 1,398 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Drexel's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Drexellydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Drexel's 1,398 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Drexel's 1,398 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Drexel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,398 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Drexel-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioDrexel sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides