Hidden Lakes, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Hidden Lakes, 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 Hidden Lakes 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 Hidden Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hidden Lakes — the short answer
Hidden Lakes, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 163 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 163 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 Hidden Lakes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hidden Lakes's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hidden Lakes
Each reading below is measured for Hidden Lakes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHidden Lakes runs about 197 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
MeasuredHidden Lakes 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 Hidden Lakes is in
Hidden Lakes sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hidden Lakes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morrow County.
What Grows in Hidden Lakes
Every plant below cleared Hidden Lakes's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hidden Lakes?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Hidden Lakes
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hidden Lakes checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 39 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hidden Lakes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hidden Lakes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MT GILEAD VILLAGE PWSPFAS · 1.1 mi
- ODOT CHESTERVILLE OUTPOSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- APPLE PIE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BP OIL CO. #07301Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- VILLAGE OF MOUNT GILEADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- OHIO STATE HIGHWAY PATROL POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MORROW COUNTY FAIRGROUNDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ODNR MT GILEAD STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- ODOT MORROW COUNTYBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- MORROW COUNTY BOARD OF MR/DDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- THE TOWN PUMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- UNION STREET STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hidden Lakes'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 Hidden Lakes.
Total Sites
92
within ~10 miles of Hidden Lakes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hidden Lakes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hidden Lakes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hidden Lakes, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hidden Lakes — Superfund (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hidden Lakes
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 Hidden Lakes average
Your land is one point inside Hidden Lakes
Everything above resolves to Hidden Lakes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 163 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 Hidden Lakes Average
Hidden Lakes Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hidden Lakes
- ●One soil character for all of Hidden Lakes
- ●Frost dates read at Hidden Lakes's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hidden Lakes's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hidden Lakes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hidden Lakes, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hidden Lakes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hidden Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hidden Lakes average
How we know this about Hidden Lakes
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 Hidden Lakes’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 Hidden Lakes
When does frost risk typically end in Hidden Lakes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hidden Lakes typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Hidden Lakes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hidden Lakes typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hidden Lakes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hidden Lakes sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 16, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hidden Lakes?
The federal record around Hidden Lakes is a meaningful one — 92 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest PFAS record about 1.1 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 Hidden Lakes?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hidden Lakes's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hidden Lakes'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 Hidden Lakes’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hidden Lakes's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 163 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hidden Lakes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hidden Lakes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 30 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hidden Lakes, the closest PFAS record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hidden Lakes's boundary and the 163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hidden Lakes's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hidden Lakes 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 Hidden Lakes's 163 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morrow County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morrow 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 Morrow County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hidden Lakes's 163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hidden Lakes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 163 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 1.1 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 Hidden Lakes-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioHidden Lakes sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides