Glouster, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Glouster, 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 Glouster 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 Glouster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Glouster — the short answer
Glouster, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 838 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 838 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 Glouster's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glouster's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glouster
Each reading below is measured for Glouster itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGlouster runs about 189 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
MeasuredGlouster 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 Glouster is in
Glouster sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Glouster's own centroid rather than borrowed from Athens County.
What Grows in Glouster
Every plant below cleared Glouster's own zone 6b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glouster?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 24 — 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 Glouster
Survey cells within 31 miles of Glouster checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Glouster
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glouster. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CERTIFIED OIL CO. #474Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Corner Stone Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- GLOUSTER CAR CAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GLOUSTER E-Z MART INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #1803Brownfields · 1200 ft
- RON'S GARAGEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- CONRAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ODNR BURR OAK FISH MGT WORK UNITUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TRIMBLE BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- D.K. BOWMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #8620Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- KROGER #831Brownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glouster'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 Glouster.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Glouster
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glouster
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glouster
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Glouster, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Glouster — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (58 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Glouster
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 Glouster average
Your land is one point inside Glouster
Everything above resolves to Glouster as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 838 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 Glouster Average
Glouster Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Glouster
- ●One soil character for all of Glouster
- ●Frost dates read at Glouster's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glouster's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glouster
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glouster, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glouster averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glouster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glouster average
How we know this about Glouster
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 Glouster’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 Glouster
When does frost risk typically end in Glouster?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glouster 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 Glouster?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glouster typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glouster?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glouster sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 10, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glouster?
The federal record around Glouster is a meaningful one — 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Glouster?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Glouster's scale — its 6b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glouster'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 Glouster’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Glouster's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 838 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glouster's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Glouster's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 24 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glouster, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glouster's boundary and the 838 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Glouster's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Glouster 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 Glouster's 838 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Athens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Athens 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 Athens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glouster's 838 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glouster you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 838 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Glouster-wide figureread your own land →
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