Gibsonburg, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Gibsonburg, 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 Gibsonburg 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 Gibsonburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gibsonburg — the short answer
Gibsonburg, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Gibsonburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gibsonburg's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gibsonburg
Each reading below is measured for Gibsonburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGibsonburg runs about 208 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
MeasuredGibsonburg 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 Gibsonburg is in
Gibsonburg sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gibsonburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sandusky County.
What Grows in Gibsonburg
Every plant below cleared Gibsonburg's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gibsonburg?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Gibsonburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Gibsonburg, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gibsonburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gibsonburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCOTT'S MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- GIBSONBURG VILLAGEBrownfields · 900 ft
- GIBSONBURG SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- REINO LINEN SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #9831Brownfields · 1400 ft
- GIBSONBURG CONVENIENCE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- VILLAGE STREET GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- S-179-M23 CITY WELL 4 AT GIBSONBURG OHNitrate · 2500 ft
- MID OHIO VALLEY LIME GIBSONBURG PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PANDORA RENTALS LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ATLAS INDUSTRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KELLER CHEVROLET INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gibsonburg'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 Gibsonburg.
Total Sites
227
within ~10 miles of Gibsonburg
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
14 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gibsonburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gibsonburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gibsonburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gibsonburg — Nitrate (60 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (14 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Gibsonburg
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 Gibsonburg average
Your land is one point inside Gibsonburg
Everything above resolves to Gibsonburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Gibsonburg Average
Gibsonburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Gibsonburg
- ●One soil character for all of Gibsonburg
- ●Frost dates read at Gibsonburg's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gibsonburg's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gibsonburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gibsonburg, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gibsonburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gibsonburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gibsonburg average
How we know this about Gibsonburg
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 Gibsonburg’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 Gibsonburg
When does frost risk typically end in Gibsonburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gibsonburg typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Gibsonburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gibsonburg typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gibsonburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gibsonburg sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 22, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gibsonburg?
The federal record around Gibsonburg is a meaningful one — 227 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Gibsonburg?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gibsonburg's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gibsonburg'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 Gibsonburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gibsonburg's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,485 acres it covers and 227 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gibsonburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gibsonburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 5 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 227 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gibsonburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gibsonburg's boundary and the 1,485 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gibsonburg's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gibsonburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gibsonburg's 1,485 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sandusky County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sandusky 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 Sandusky County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gibsonburg's 1,485 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gibsonburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,485 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Gibsonburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioGibsonburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.