Fairborn, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Fairborn, 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 Fairborn 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 Fairborn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairborn — the short answer
Fairborn, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Fairborn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairborn's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairborn
Each reading below is measured for Fairborn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFairborn runs about 212 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
MeasuredFairborn 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 Fairborn is in
Fairborn sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fairborn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greene County.
What Grows in Fairborn
Every plant below cleared Fairborn's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairborn?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Fairborn
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Fairborn, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fairborn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairborn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ESTATE OF MAYBELL PATTENUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- OHIO BELL TELEPHONE CO. L54132Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #1637Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- PENSKE AUTO CENTER NO 3033Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- SPEEDWAY #5222Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #3411Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- WALGREENS #6990Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- SPEEDWAY #45407Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #6506Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- UNITED #6337Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BP OIL CO. #09678Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ALLADIN CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairborn'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 Fairborn.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairborn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairborn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairborn, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fairborn — Superfund (40 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (111 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Fairborn
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 Fairborn average
Your land is one point inside Fairborn
Everything above resolves to Fairborn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 city 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 Fairborn Average
Fairborn Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fairborn
- ●One soil character for all of Fairborn
- ●Frost dates read at Fairborn's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairborn's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairborn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairborn, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairborn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairborn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairborn average
How we know this about Fairborn
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Fairborn’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Fairborn
When does frost risk typically end in Fairborn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairborn typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Fairborn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairborn typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairborn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairborn sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 20, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairborn?
The federal record around Fairborn runs heavier than most — 1,419 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (610), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Fairborn?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fairborn's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairborn'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 Fairborn’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fairborn's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,325 acres it covers and 1,419 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairborn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fairborn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 3 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,419 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairborn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairborn's boundary and the 9,325 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairborn's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fairbornlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairborn's 9,325 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greene County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greene 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 Greene County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairborn's 9,325 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairborn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,325 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Fairborn-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioFairborn sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides