Girard, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Girard, 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 Girard 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 Girard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Girard — the short answer
Girard, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- 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)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Girard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Girard's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Girard
Each reading below is measured for Girard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGirard runs about 196 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
MeasuredGirard 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 Girard is in
Girard sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Girard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Trumbull County.
What Grows in Girard
Every plant below cleared Girard's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Girard?
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 Nov 1 — 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 Girard
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Girard, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Girard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Girard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #7248Brownfields · 1800 ft
- COMMERCIAL TRUCK & TRAILER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TOM'S SEWER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SUN OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FORMER SINCLAIR SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ORPHAN TANKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- FORMER FRIEND'S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #4462Brownfields · 2500 ft
- ROB'S AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2500 ft
- GLENN MOHNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WOLFORD PICKUPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FORMER OHIO LEATHERWORKSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Girard'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 Girard.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Girard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Girard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Girard, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 113 sites within ~10 miles of Girard. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Girard
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 Girard average
Your land is one point inside Girard
Everything above resolves to Girard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Girard Average
Girard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Girard
- ●One soil character for all of Girard
- ●Frost dates read at Girard's scale: Apr 19 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Girard's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Girard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Girard, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Girard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Girard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Girard average
How we know this about Girard
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 Girard’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 Girard
When does frost risk typically end in Girard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Girard 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 Girard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Girard 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 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Girard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Girard sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 18, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Girard?
The federal record around Girard runs heavier than most — 1,312 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (689), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Girard?
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 Girard's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Girard'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 Girard’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Girard's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,610 acres it covers and 1,312 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Girard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Girard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Nov 1 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,312 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Girard, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Girard's boundary and the 3,610 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Girard's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Girardlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Girard's 3,610 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Trumbull County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Trumbull 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 Trumbull County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Girard's 3,610 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Girard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,610 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Girard-wide figureread your own land →