Fort Shawnee, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Shawnee, 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 Fort Shawnee 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 Fort Shawnee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Shawnee — the short answer
Fort Shawnee, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 6a is Fort Shawnee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Shawnee's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Shawnee
Each reading below is measured for Fort Shawnee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Shawnee runs about 213 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
MeasuredFort Shawnee sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Fort Shawnee is in
Fort Shawnee sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Shawnee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allen County.
What Grows in Fort Shawnee
Every plant below cleared Fort Shawnee's own zone 6a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Shawnee?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Fort Shawnee
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fort Shawnee checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 55 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort Shawnee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Shawnee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #11039Brownfields · 1200 ft
- ORPHAN TANK CLOSED GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #4445Brownfields · 2000 ft
- VILLAGE OF FORT SHAWNEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- PHYLLIS A. COLLINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PERRY LOCAL SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHESTER CARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WATCH TVUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ALLEN EAST BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- APOLLO CAREER CENTERBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- APOLLO CAREER CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- US ARC FAZE MEMORIALBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Shawnee'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 Fort Shawnee.
Total Sites
561
within ~10 miles of Fort Shawnee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Shawnee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Shawnee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Shawnee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort Shawnee — Toxics Release Inventory (61 sites) and Superfund (7 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Fort Shawnee
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 Fort Shawnee average
Your land is one point inside Fort Shawnee
Everything above resolves to Fort Shawnee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Fort Shawnee Average
Fort Shawnee Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Fort Shawnee
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Shawnee
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Shawnee's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Shawnee's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Shawnee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Shawnee, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Shawnee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Shawnee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Shawnee average
How we know this about Fort Shawnee
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 Fort Shawnee’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 Fort Shawnee
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Shawnee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Shawnee typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Fort Shawnee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Shawnee typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Shawnee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Shawnee sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 24, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Shawnee?
The federal record around Fort Shawnee is a meaningful one — 561 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (261), 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 Fort Shawnee?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Shawnee's scale — its 6a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Shawnee'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 Fort Shawnee’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort Shawnee's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,086 acres it covers and 561 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Shawnee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Shawnee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 7 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 561 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Shawnee, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Shawnee's boundary and the 6,086 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Shawnee's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fort Shawnee checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Shawnee's 6,086 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allen 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 Allen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Shawnee's 6,086 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Shawnee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,086 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 Fort Shawnee-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioFort Shawnee sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides