Empire, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Empire, 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 Empire 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 Empire — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Empire — the short answer
Empire, Ohio: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 192 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 192 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 7a is Empire's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Empire's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Empire
Each reading below is measured for Empire itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEmpire runs about 225 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
MeasuredEmpire sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Empire is in
Empire sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Empire's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Empire
Every plant below cleared Empire's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Empire?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Empire
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Empire, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Empire
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Empire. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MULLEN'S HAULING AND EXCAVATINGBrownfields · 900 ft
- HERITAGE TRANSPORT LLCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- ROGERS TRUCKING, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HANCOCK COUNTY BUS GARAGEBrownfields · 2300 ft
- NICK'S AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ERSHIGS INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- DAVIS BROTHERS PHARMACYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- BOBBY DSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- OH4102512 Jefferson 00149 Production Well 0N01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- LEONARD WATSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BOWEN & BROWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- FIRSTENERGY - W H SAMMIS GENERATING PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Empire'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 Empire.
Total Sites
504
within ~10 miles of Empire
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Empire
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Empire
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Empire, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Empire — Superfund (11 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (43 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Empire
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 Empire average
Your land is one point inside Empire
Everything above resolves to Empire as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 192 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 Empire Average
Empire Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Empire
- ●One soil character for all of Empire
- ●Frost dates read at Empire's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Empire's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Empire
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Empire, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Empire averages can't show:
We read public map data around Empire — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Empire average
How we know this about Empire
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 Empire’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 Empire
When does frost risk typically end in Empire?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Empire 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.
When is the first frost in Empire?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Empire typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Empire?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Empire sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 29, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Empire?
The federal record around Empire is a meaningful one — 504 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (270), 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Empire?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Empire's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Empire'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 Empire’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Empire's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 192 acres it covers and 504 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Empire's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Empire's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 12 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 504 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Empire, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Empire's boundary and the 192 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Empire's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Empirelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Empire's 192 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Empire's 192 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Empire you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 192 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Empire-wide figureread your own land →