Gambier, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gambier, 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 Gambier 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 Gambier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gambier — the short answer
Gambier, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 600 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 600 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 Gambier's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gambier's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gambier
Each reading below is measured for Gambier itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGambier runs about 184 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
MeasuredGambier 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 Gambier is in
Gambier sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gambier's own centroid rather than borrowed from Knox County.
What Grows in Gambier
Every plant below cleared Gambier's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gambier?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Gambier
Survey cells within 31 miles of Gambier checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 38 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gambier
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gambier. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAMPUS AUTO & FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- KENYON COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- KENYON COLLEGEBrownfields · 2500 ft
- SMALL'S SAND AND GRAVEL (0142000058)Brownfields · 2.2 mi
- OHIO EASTERN STAR HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- KNOX COMMUNITY HOSPITALBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- KMART # 7499Brownfields · 2.9 mi
- PETCO #5843Brownfields · 3.0 mi
- HOT RODS FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- WAL-MART NO 2149Brownfields · 3.0 mi
- AVM HOLDINGS LTD/DBA APPLE VALLEY MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #232Brownfields · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gambier'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 Gambier.
Total Sites
178
within ~10 miles of Gambier
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gambier
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gambier
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gambier, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 110 sites within ~10 miles of Gambier. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Gambier
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 Gambier average
Your land is one point inside Gambier
Everything above resolves to Gambier as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 600 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 Gambier Average
Gambier Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Gambier
- ●One soil character for all of Gambier
- ●Frost dates read at Gambier's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gambier's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gambier
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gambier, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gambier averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gambier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gambier average
How we know this about Gambier
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 Gambier’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 Gambier
When does frost risk typically end in Gambier?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gambier typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Gambier?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gambier typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gambier?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gambier sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 6, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gambier?
The federal record around Gambier shows 178 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (110), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Gambier?
From about Sep 20 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 Oct 20 (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 Oct 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gambier's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gambier'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 Gambier’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gambier's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 600 acres it covers and 178 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gambier's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gambier's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 20 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 178 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gambier, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gambier's boundary and the 600 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gambier's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Gambier 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 Gambier's 600 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gambier's 600 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gambier you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 600 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Gambier-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioGambier sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides