East Sparta, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 East Sparta, 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 East Sparta 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 East Sparta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Sparta — the short answer
East Sparta, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- 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 East Sparta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Sparta's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Sparta
Each reading below is measured for East Sparta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Sparta 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
MeasuredEast Sparta 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 East Sparta is in
East Sparta sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at East Sparta's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Stark County is mostly Erie Drift Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in East Sparta
Every plant below cleared East Sparta's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Sparta?
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 East Sparta
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from East Sparta, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Sparta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Sparta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RUTH LIGHTSEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- JAMES BROAD GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- LOUIS BEUELERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- US CERAMIC TILE CO., INC.Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- US CERAMIC TILE CO., INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- LSH CHEVROLET SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- RIDGE RD FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SPARTA MOSAICSToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- MARATHON PIPE LINE LLCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- ERGON TRUCKING INC CROSSROADSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #4816Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- CROSSROADS BELLSTORESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Sparta'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 East Sparta.
Total Sites
656
within ~10 miles of East Sparta
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Sparta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Sparta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Sparta, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of East Sparta — Toxics Release Inventory (72 sites) and Superfund (13 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in East Sparta
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 East Sparta average
Your land is one point inside East Sparta
Everything above resolves to East Sparta 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 East Sparta Average
East Sparta Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across East Sparta
- ●One soil character for all of East Sparta
- ●Frost dates read at East Sparta's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Sparta's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Sparta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Sparta, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Sparta averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Sparta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Sparta average
How we know this about East Sparta
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 East Sparta’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 East Sparta
When does frost risk typically end in East Sparta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Sparta 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.
When is the first frost in East Sparta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Sparta typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Sparta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Sparta 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 East Sparta?
The federal record around East Sparta is a meaningful one — 656 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (332), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 East Sparta?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Sparta's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Sparta'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 East Sparta’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at East Sparta's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,171 acres it covers and 656 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Sparta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Sparta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 6 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 656 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Sparta, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Sparta's boundary and the 1,171 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- East Sparta sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of East Spartalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Sparta's 1,171 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stark 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 Stark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Sparta's 1,171 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Sparta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,171 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 East Sparta-wide figureread your own land →
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