Fairlawn, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fairlawn, 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 Fairlawn 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 Fairlawn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairlawn — the short answer
Fairlawn, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- 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
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Fairlawn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairlawn's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairlawn
Each reading below is measured for Fairlawn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFairlawn runs about 220 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
MeasuredFairlawn 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 Fairlawn is in
Fairlawn sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fairlawn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Summit County.
What Grows in Fairlawn
Every plant below cleared Fairlawn's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairlawn?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (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 Fairlawn
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Fairlawn, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fairlawn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairlawn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MACYS SUMMIT MALLBrownfields · 1100 ft
- FIRESTONE STORE NO 1525Brownfields · 1100 ft
- MAY CO SUMMIT MALLBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Giant # 442Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CITY OF FAIRLAWN SERVICE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CITY OF FAIRLAWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CITY OF FAIRLAWN FIRE DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ROSE HILL BURIAL PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- QUALITY SCRUB CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PROCARE AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE SOLUTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NATIONAL TIRE & BATTERY #8532Brownfields · 2300 ft
- HOLLAND OIL CO. #65Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairlawn'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 Fairlawn.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairlawn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairlawn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairlawn, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 138 sites within ~10 miles of Fairlawn. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fairlawn
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 Fairlawn average
Your land is one point inside Fairlawn
Everything above resolves to Fairlawn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Fairlawn Average
Fairlawn Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fairlawn
- ●One soil character for all of Fairlawn
- ●Frost dates read at Fairlawn's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairlawn's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairlawn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairlawn, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairlawn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairlawn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairlawn average
How we know this about Fairlawn
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 Fairlawn’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 Fairlawn
When does frost risk typically end in Fairlawn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairlawn typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Fairlawn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairlawn 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 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairlawn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairlawn sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 29, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairlawn?
The federal record around Fairlawn is a meaningful one — 1,624 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (802), 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 Fairlawn?
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 Fairlawn's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairlawn'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 Fairlawn’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fairlawn's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,922 acres it covers and 1,624 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairlawn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fairlawn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 12 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,624 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairlawn, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairlawn's boundary and the 2,922 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairlawn's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fairlawnlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairlawn's 2,922 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Summit County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Summit 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 Summit County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairlawn's 2,922 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairlawn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,922 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 Fairlawn-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioFairlawn sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides