Hilltop, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Hilltop, 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 Hilltop 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 Hilltop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hilltop — the short answer
Hilltop, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 481 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 481 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 Hilltop's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hilltop's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hilltop
Each reading below is measured for Hilltop itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHilltop runs about 194 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
MeasuredHilltop 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 Hilltop is in
Hilltop sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hilltop's own centroid rather than borrowed from Trumbull County.
What Grows in Hilltop
Every plant below cleared Hilltop's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hilltop?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Hilltop
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Hilltop, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hilltop
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hilltop. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WOLFORD'S REFUSE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NILES COMBUSTION TURBINE (NILES POWER, LLC) (0278060023)Toxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- NILES COMBUSTION TURBINE (NILES POWER, LLC) (0278060023)Brownfields · 2100 ft
- PREDATOR TRUCKING CO INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MIKE TORSKYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- NILES GENERATING PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EASCO ALUMINUM CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- OHIO VALLEY ALUMINUM C LLC NILES FACILITToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- MIKE COATES CONSTRUCTION CO.,INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NILES COMBUSTION TURBINEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SHADES OF KOLOR AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- VANEX TUBE CORPBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hilltop'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 Hilltop.
Total Sites
1,323
within ~10 miles of Hilltop
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
12 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hilltop
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hilltop
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hilltop, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hilltop — Toxics Release Inventory (114 sites) and PFAS (13 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Hilltop
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 Hilltop average
Your land is one point inside Hilltop
Everything above resolves to Hilltop as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 481 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 Hilltop Average
Hilltop Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hilltop
- ●One soil character for all of Hilltop
- ●Frost dates read at Hilltop's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hilltop's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hilltop
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hilltop, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hilltop averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hilltop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hilltop average
How we know this about Hilltop
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 Hilltop’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 Hilltop
When does frost risk typically end in Hilltop?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hilltop typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Hilltop?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hilltop 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 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hilltop?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hilltop sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 17, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hilltop?
The federal record around Hilltop runs heavier than most — 1,323 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (698), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hilltop?
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 Hilltop's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hilltop'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 Hilltop’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hilltop's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 481 acres it covers and 1,323 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hilltop's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hilltop's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 31 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,323 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hilltop, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hilltop's boundary and the 481 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hilltop's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hilltoplydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hilltop's 481 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Trumbull County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Trumbull 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 Trumbull County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hilltop's 481 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hilltop you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 481 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 Hilltop-wide figureread your own land →