Hartford (Croton), Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hartford (Croton), 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 Hartford (Croton) 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 Hartford (Croton) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hartford (Croton) — the short answer
Hartford (Croton), Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 342 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 342 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 Hartford (Croton)'s average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hartford (Croton)'s 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hartford (Croton)
Each reading below is measured for Hartford (Croton) itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHartford (Croton) runs about 202 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
MeasuredHartford (Croton) 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 Hartford (Croton) is in
Hartford (Croton) sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hartford (Croton)'s own centroid rather than borrowed from Licking County.
What Grows in Hartford (Croton)
Every plant below cleared Hartford (Croton)'s own zone 6a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hartford (Croton)?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Hartford (Croton)
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Hartford (Croton), first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hartford (Croton)
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hartford (Croton). Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ED'S AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CROTON HARDWARE & LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CROTON ELEVATOR INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LEE THACKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LICKING COUNTY HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BUCKEYE EGG FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TRILLIUM FARM HOLDINGS LLC - PULLET SITE 2Toxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- TRILLIUM FARMS LAYER SITE 3Toxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- OHIO FRESH EGGS PS4Toxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- BUCKEYE EGG FARM L P CROTON PULLET 1Toxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- TRILLIUM FARM HOLDINGS LLC - L1Toxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- TRILLIUM FARM - LAYER SITE #4Toxics Release Inventory · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hartford (Croton)'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 Hartford (Croton).
Total Sites
125
within ~10 miles of Hartford (Croton)
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
20 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hartford (Croton)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hartford (Croton)
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hartford (Croton), Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Hartford (Croton). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Hartford (Croton)
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 Hartford (Croton) average
Your land is one point inside Hartford (Croton)
Everything above resolves to Hartford (Croton) as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 342 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 Hartford (Croton) Average
Hartford (Croton) Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hartford (Croton)
- ●One soil character for all of Hartford (Croton)
- ●Frost dates read at Hartford (Croton)'s scale: Apr 12 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hartford (Croton)'s 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hartford (Croton)
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hartford (Croton), Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hartford (Croton) averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hartford (Croton) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hartford (Croton) average
How we know this about Hartford (Croton)
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 Hartford (Croton)’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 Hartford (Croton)
When does frost risk typically end in Hartford (Croton)?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hartford (Croton) typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Hartford (Croton)?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hartford (Croton) typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hartford (Croton)?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hartford (Croton) sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 17, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hartford (Croton)?
The federal record around Hartford (Croton) shows 125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hartford (Croton)?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hartford (Croton)'s scale — its 6a band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hartford (Croton)'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 Hartford (Croton)’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hartford (Croton)'s own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 342 acres it covers and 125 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hartford (Croton)'s own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hartford (Croton)'s own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 31 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hartford (Croton), the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hartford (Croton)'s boundary and the 342 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hartford (Croton)'s own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hartford (Croton)lydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hartford (Croton)'s 342 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 Hartford (Croton)'s 342 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hartford (Croton) you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 342 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hartford (Croton)-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioHartford (Croton) sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides