Kelleys Island, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, 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 Kelleys Island, 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 Kelleys Island 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 Kelleys Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kelleys Island — the short answer
Kelleys Island, Ohio: USDA zone 7a, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- Erie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- Erie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- Erie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Erie County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Kelleys Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kelleys Island's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kelleys Island
Each reading below is measured for Kelleys Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKelleys Island runs about 230 days between hard freezes (read from Erie County, the closest normal to Kelleys Island) — 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
MeasuredKelleys Island sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Kelleys Island is in
Kelleys Island sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kelleys Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in Kelleys Island
Every plant below cleared Kelleys Island's own zone 7a and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kelleys Island?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Kelleys Island
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Kelleys Island, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kelleys Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kelleys Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CRAFTS LAKEVIEW LANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- POLICE DEPT BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- KELLEYS COVE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- W. LEE SHADLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SUNSET POINT LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MUNICIPAL BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- THE SEA MERCHANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SEAWAY MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- VILLAGE PUMP, THEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- US COAST GUARD STA MARBLEHEADBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- DANCHISEN MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- TURINSKI MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kelleys Island'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 Kelleys Island.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Kelleys Island
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kelleys Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kelleys Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kelleys Island, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 75 sites within ~10 miles of Kelleys Island. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Kelleys Island
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 Kelleys Island average
Your land is one point inside Kelleys Island
Everything above resolves to Kelleys Island as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Erie County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Kelleys Island Average
Kelleys Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Kelleys Island
- ●One soil character for all of Kelleys Island
- ●Frost dates read at Kelleys Island's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kelleys Island's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kelleys Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kelleys Island, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kelleys Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kelleys Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kelleys Island average
How we know this about Kelleys Island
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 Erie County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Kelleys Island
When does frost risk typically end in Kelleys Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kelleys Island 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 Kelleys Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kelleys Island typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kelleys Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kelleys Island sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Nov 3, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kelleys Island?
The federal record around Kelleys Island shows 91 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Kelleys Island?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kelleys Island's scale — its 7a band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kelleys Island'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 Kelleys Island’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kelleys Island's own scale — the 2,783 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kelleys Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kelleys Island, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kelleys Island's boundary and the 2,783 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kelleys Island's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kelleys Islandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kelleys Island has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Erie County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kelleys Island's 2,783 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Erie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Erie 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 Erie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kelleys Island's 2,783 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kelleys Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,783 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Kelleys Island-wide figureread your own land →
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