Garrettsville, 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 Garrettsville, 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 Garrettsville 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 Garrettsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Garrettsville — the short answer
Garrettsville, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Garrettsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garrettsville's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garrettsville
Each reading below is measured for Garrettsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGarrettsville runs about 194 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
MeasuredGarrettsville 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 Garrettsville is in
Garrettsville sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Garrettsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Portage County.
What Grows in Garrettsville
Every plant below cleared Garrettsville's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Garrettsville?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Garrettsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from Garrettsville, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Garrettsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garrettsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GARRETTSVILLE POLICE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- COMMUNITY AMBULANCE, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TOM FITT & GEORGE HARTLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SPEEDWAY #3505Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SPEEDWAY 3505Brownfields · 1900 ft
- SARCHIONE CHEVROLET II INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SAVE 4 STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- IGA EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #4140Brownfields · 2300 ft
- HORNING-GARRETTSVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BAY WINDOW INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WILTON TOOL COMPANYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garrettsville'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 Garrettsville.
Total Sites
168
within ~10 miles of Garrettsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Garrettsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garrettsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Garrettsville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Garrettsville. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Garrettsville
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 Garrettsville average
Your land is one point inside Garrettsville
Everything above resolves to Garrettsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Garrettsville Average
Garrettsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Garrettsville
- ●One soil character for all of Garrettsville
- ●Frost dates read at Garrettsville's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garrettsville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garrettsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garrettsville, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garrettsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garrettsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garrettsville average
How we know this about Garrettsville
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 Garrettsville’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 Garrettsville
When does frost risk typically end in Garrettsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garrettsville typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Garrettsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garrettsville typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Garrettsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garrettsville sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 15, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garrettsville?
The federal record around Garrettsville is a meaningful one — 168 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (99), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Garrettsville?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Garrettsville's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garrettsville'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 Garrettsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Garrettsville's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,626 acres it covers and 168 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garrettsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Garrettsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 29 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 168 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garrettsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garrettsville's boundary and the 1,626 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Garrettsville's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Garrettsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Garrettsville's 1,626 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Portage County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Portage 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 Portage County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Garrettsville's 1,626 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garrettsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,626 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Garrettsville-wide figureread your own land →