Hilliard, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hilliard, 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 Hilliard 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 Hilliard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hilliard — the short answer
Hilliard, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Hilliard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hilliard's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hilliard
Each reading below is measured for Hilliard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHilliard runs about 212 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
MeasuredHilliard 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 Hilliard is in
Hilliard sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hilliard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Hilliard
Every plant below cleared Hilliard's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hilliard?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Hilliard
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Hilliard, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hilliard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hilliard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OHIO BELL TELEPHONE CO. L37128Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- GUN WORLDUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CITY OF HILLIARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- HILLIARD SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- 3991 MAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HILLIARD CLEANERSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- LANDMARK LOFTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NORWICH TWP. FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NORWICH TOWNSHIP FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MAIN AND MADISON CENTER LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BILLS FOODMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MASTER LIGHTING SERVICESBrownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hilliard'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 Hilliard.
Total Sites
1,837
within ~10 miles of Hilliard
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hilliard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hilliard
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Hilliard
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 Hilliard average
Your land is one point inside Hilliard
Everything above resolves to Hilliard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 city 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 Hilliard Average
Hilliard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hilliard
- ●One soil character for all of Hilliard
- ●Frost dates read at Hilliard's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hilliard's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hilliard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hilliard, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hilliard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hilliard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hilliard average
How we know this about Hilliard
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Hilliard’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Hilliard
When does frost risk typically end in Hilliard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hilliard typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Hilliard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hilliard typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hilliard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hilliard sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 22, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hilliard?
The federal record around Hilliard is a meaningful one — 1,837 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (963), 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 Hilliard?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hilliard's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hilliard'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 Hilliard’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hilliard's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,100 acres it covers and 1,837 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hilliard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hilliard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 5 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,837 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hilliard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hilliard's boundary and the 9,100 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hilliard's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hilliardlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hilliard's 9,100 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hilliard's 9,100 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hilliard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,100 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 Hilliard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioHilliard sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides