Hanover, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hanover, 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 Hanover 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 Hanover — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hanover — the short answer
Hanover, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- 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
- ~199
- 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 6a is Hanover's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hanover's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hanover
Each reading below is measured for Hanover itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHanover runs about 199 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
MeasuredHanover 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 Hanover is in
Hanover sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hanover's own centroid rather than borrowed from Licking County.
What Grows in Hanover
Every plant below cleared Hanover's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hanover?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Hanover
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Hanover, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hanover
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hanover. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #11245Brownfields · 1500 ft
- LICKING VALLEY JR HIGH-LICKING VALLEY MIDDLE SCHBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- VILLAGE CROSSINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LI-32Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- ALLTEL OHIO, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- GERMANS BUS SALES & SERVICE *Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- NEWARK TOOL DIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BOWERSTON SHALE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BOWERSTON SHALE COToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- LI-31Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- HOUSTON PLUMBING & HEATING, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MADISON TWP TRUSTEESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hanover'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 Hanover.
Total Sites
296
within ~10 miles of Hanover
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hanover
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hanover
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hanover, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hanover — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Hanover
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 Hanover average
Your land is one point inside Hanover
Everything above resolves to Hanover 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 Hanover Average
Hanover Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hanover
- ●One soil character for all of Hanover
- ●Frost dates read at Hanover's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hanover's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hanover
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hanover, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hanover averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hanover — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hanover average
How we know this about Hanover
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 Hanover’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 Hanover
When does frost risk typically end in Hanover?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hanover typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Hanover?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hanover 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 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hanover?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hanover sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 15, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hanover?
The federal record around Hanover is a meaningful one — 296 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (162), the nearest Brownfields 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 Hanover?
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 Hanover's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hanover'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 Hanover’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hanover's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,169 acres it covers and 296 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hanover's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hanover's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 29 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 296 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hanover, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hanover's boundary and the 1,169 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hanover's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hanoverlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hanover's 1,169 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 Hanover's 1,169 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hanover you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,169 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 Hanover-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioHanover sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides