Jackson Center, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Jackson Center, 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 Jackson Center 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 Jackson Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jackson Center — the short answer
Jackson Center, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Jackson Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jackson Center's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jackson Center
Each reading below is measured for Jackson Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJackson Center runs about 205 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
MeasuredJackson Center 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 Jackson Center is in
Jackson Center sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jackson Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shelby County.
What Grows in Jackson Center
Every plant below cleared Jackson Center's own zone 6a and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jackson Center?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Jackson Center
Survey cells within 31 miles of Jackson Center checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 38 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Jackson Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jackson Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10321Brownfields · 250 ft
- SAFETY BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- JACKSON CENTER LOCAL SCHOOLSBrownfields · 600 ft
- SERVICE BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- HOYING'S MARATHON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- JACKSON CENTER LOCAL SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- AIRSTREAM DIV OF BEATRICE FOODSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- AIRSTREAM DIV OF BEATRICE FOODSToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- DESIGN ORIGINALS INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- BATTERY RECYCLING INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- EMI CORPBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jackson Center'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 Jackson Center.
Total Sites
96
within ~10 miles of Jackson Center
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jackson Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jackson Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jackson Center, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Jackson Center. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Jackson Center
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 Jackson Center average
Your land is one point inside Jackson Center
Everything above resolves to Jackson Center as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Jackson Center Average
Jackson Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Jackson Center
- ●One soil character for all of Jackson Center
- ●Frost dates read at Jackson Center's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jackson Center's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jackson Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jackson Center, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jackson Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jackson Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jackson Center average
How we know this about Jackson Center
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 Jackson Center’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 Jackson Center
When does frost risk typically end in Jackson Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jackson Center typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Jackson Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jackson Center typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jackson Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jackson Center sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 18, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jackson Center?
The federal record around Jackson Center shows 96 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Jackson Center?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jackson Center's scale — its 6a band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jackson Center'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 Jackson Center’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Jackson Center's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,101 acres it covers and 96 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jackson Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jackson Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 1 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 96 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jackson Center, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jackson Center's boundary and the 1,101 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jackson Center's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Jackson Center 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 Jackson Center's 1,101 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shelby County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shelby 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 Shelby County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jackson Center's 1,101 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jackson Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,101 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Jackson Center-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioJackson Center sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides