Galion, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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 Galion, 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 Galion 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 Galion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Galion — the short answer
Galion, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Galion's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Galion's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Galion
Each reading below is measured for Galion itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGalion runs about 199 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGalion 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 Galion is in
Galion sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Galion's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Galion
Every plant below cleared Galion's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Galion?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Galion
Survey cells within 31 miles of Galion checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Galion
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Galion. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCCLAIN E-Z PACK INCToxics Release Inventory · 350 ft
- ACME ELECTRONICS RECYCLING LLCBrownfields · 650 ft
- CERTIFIED OIL CO. #135Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- GALION LLCToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- GALION LLCBrownfields · 950 ft
- AMERICAN STEEL GRAVE VAULT COBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CRAWFORD CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GALION, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CARTER MACHINE CO PLANT 1Brownfields · 1500 ft
- CARTER MACHINE CO PLANT 1Toxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- GALION MOTOMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CLARK OIL SERVICE STATION #1744Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Galion'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 Galion.
Total Sites
168
within ~10 miles of Galion
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Galion
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Galion
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Galion, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Galion — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Galion
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 Galion average
Your land is one point inside Galion
Everything above resolves to Galion as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Galion Average
Galion Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Galion
- ●One soil character for all of Galion
- ●Frost dates read at Galion's scale: Apr 16 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Galion's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Galion
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Galion, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Galion averages can't show:
We read public map data around Galion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Galion average
How we know this about Galion
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 Galion’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 Galion
When does frost risk typically end in Galion?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Galion typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Galion?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Galion typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Galion?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Galion sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 18, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Galion?
The federal record around Galion shows 168 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Galion?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Galion's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Galion'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 Galion’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Galion's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,753 acres it covers and 168 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Galion's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Galion's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Nov 1 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 168 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Galion, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Galion's boundary and the 4,753 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Galion's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Galion 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 Galion's 4,753 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Galion's 4,753 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Galion you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,753 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Galion-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioGalion sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides