Hooven, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Hooven, 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 Hooven 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 Hooven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hooven — the short answer
Hooven, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Hooven's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hooven's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hooven
Each reading below is measured for Hooven itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHooven runs about 222 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
MeasuredHooven 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 Hooven is in
Hooven sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hooven's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hamilton County is mostly Eastern Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hooven
Every plant below cleared Hooven's own zone 6b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hooven?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Hooven
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Hooven, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hooven
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hooven. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRUEWER WOODWORK MFG. CO. (1431473393)Toxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- RR&T SERVICES INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- HOWE ASPHALT SEALINGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CLEVES STYRENESuperfund · 0.8 mi
- ELCO CORP.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- KROGER #445Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- BARRETT PAVING MATERIALS INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- ADDISON TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- EATON SAND & GRAVELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- A & H FOUNDATIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- A&H FOUNDATIONS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CHEVRON USA INC CINCINNATI REFINERYToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hooven'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 Hooven.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hooven
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hooven
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hooven, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hooven — PFAS (8 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (45 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hooven
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 Hooven average
Your land is one point inside Hooven
Everything above resolves to Hooven as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Hooven Average
Hooven Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hooven
- ●One soil character for all of Hooven
- ●Frost dates read at Hooven's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hooven's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hooven
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hooven, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hooven averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hooven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hooven average
How we know this about Hooven
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 Hooven’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 Hooven
When does frost risk typically end in Hooven?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hooven typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Hooven?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hooven typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hooven?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hooven sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 26, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hooven?
The federal record around Hooven is a meaningful one — 597 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (322), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 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 Hooven?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hooven's scale — its 6b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hooven'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 Hooven’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hooven's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,648 acres it covers and 597 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hooven's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hooven's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 9 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 597 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hooven, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hooven's boundary and the 1,648 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hooven sits in the Interior Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hoovenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hooven's 1,648 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hamilton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hamilton 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 Hamilton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hooven's 1,648 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hooven you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,648 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 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 Hooven-wide figureread your own land →
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