Gratiot, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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 Gratiot, 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 Gratiot 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 Gratiot — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gratiot — the short answer
Gratiot, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 86 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 86 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 Gratiot's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gratiot's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gratiot
Each reading below is measured for Gratiot itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGratiot 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
MeasuredGratiot 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 Gratiot is in
Gratiot sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gratiot's own centroid rather than borrowed from Licking County.
What Grows in Gratiot
Every plant below cleared Gratiot's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gratiot?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Gratiot
Spotted lanternfly documented 18 miles from Gratiot, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gratiot
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gratiot. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NATIONAL TRAIL FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ALLTEL OHIO, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- UNITED STATES POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #14289Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- SUBURBAN RECYCLING & DISP FAC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- HAROLD J. BROMLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- BROWNSVILLE COUNTRY KITCHENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- WESTPIKE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP TRUSTEESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- WM- SUBURBAN RECYCLING & DISPOSAL FACILITY - LANDFILLBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- HOPEWELL AUTO WRECKING LLCBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- SEGO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gratiot'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 Gratiot.
Total Sites
99
within ~10 miles of Gratiot
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gratiot
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gratiot
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Gratiot
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 Gratiot average
Your land is one point inside Gratiot
Everything above resolves to Gratiot as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 86 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 Gratiot Average
Gratiot Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Gratiot
- ●One soil character for all of Gratiot
- ●Frost dates read at Gratiot's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gratiot's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gratiot
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gratiot, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gratiot averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gratiot — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gratiot average
How we know this about Gratiot
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 Gratiot’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 Gratiot
When does frost risk typically end in Gratiot?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gratiot typically lands around Apr 8, 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 Apr 29.
When is the first frost in Gratiot?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gratiot typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gratiot?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gratiot sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 19, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gratiot?
The federal record around Gratiot is a meaningful one — 99 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), 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 Gratiot?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gratiot's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gratiot'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 Gratiot’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gratiot's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 86 acres it covers and 99 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gratiot's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gratiot's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 2 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 99 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gratiot, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gratiot's boundary and the 86 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gratiot's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gratiotlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gratiot's 86 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Licking County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Licking 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 Licking County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gratiot's 86 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gratiot you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 86 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 Gratiot-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioGratiot sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides