Killbuck, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Killbuck, 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 Killbuck 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 Killbuck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Killbuck — the short answer
Killbuck, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 231 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 231 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 Killbuck's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Killbuck's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Killbuck
Each reading below is measured for Killbuck itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKillbuck runs about 184 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
MeasuredKillbuck 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 Killbuck is in
Killbuck sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Killbuck's own centroid rather than borrowed from Holmes County.
What Grows in Killbuck
Every plant below cleared Killbuck's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Killbuck?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Killbuck
Survey cells within 31 miles of Killbuck checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 35 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Killbuck
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Killbuck. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ELM SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PRIDE OF THE HILLS MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- DANIEL'S AMISH COLLECTION LLC (0238042001)Brownfields · 2100 ft
- PRIDE OF THE HILLS MFGBrownfields · 2100 ft
- RICE CHADWICK RUBBER CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SPERRY & RICE MFG CO LLC KILLBUCK PLTToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- SPERRY & RICE MFG CO LLC KILLBUCK PLTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SHREINER SOLEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- KILLBUCK TOWNSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- HOLMES COUNTY AIRPORT AUTHORITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- SEAMAN CORPToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- ODOT HOLMES COUNTY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Killbuck'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 Killbuck.
Total Sites
84
within ~10 miles of Killbuck
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Killbuck
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Killbuck
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Killbuck, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 57 sites within ~10 miles of Killbuck. 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 Killbuck
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 Killbuck average
Your land is one point inside Killbuck
Everything above resolves to Killbuck as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 231 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 Killbuck Average
Killbuck Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Killbuck
- ●One soil character for all of Killbuck
- ●Frost dates read at Killbuck's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Killbuck's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Killbuck
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Killbuck, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Killbuck averages can't show:
We read public map data around Killbuck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Killbuck average
How we know this about Killbuck
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 Killbuck’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 Killbuck
When does frost risk typically end in Killbuck?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Killbuck typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Killbuck?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Killbuck typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Killbuck?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Killbuck sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 6, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Killbuck?
The federal record around Killbuck shows 84 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), 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 Killbuck?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Killbuck's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Killbuck'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 Killbuck’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Killbuck's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 231 acres it covers and 84 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Killbuck's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Killbuck's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 20 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 84 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Killbuck, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Killbuck's boundary and the 231 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Killbuck's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Killbuck 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 Killbuck's 231 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Holmes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Holmes 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 Holmes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Killbuck's 231 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Killbuck you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 231 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 Killbuck-wide figureread your own land →
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