Kirtland, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Kirtland, 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 Kirtland 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 Kirtland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kirtland — the short answer
Kirtland, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 11K 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 Kirtland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kirtland's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kirtland
Each reading below is measured for Kirtland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKirtland runs about 208 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
MeasuredKirtland 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 Kirtland is in
Kirtland sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kirtland's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lake County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Kirtland
Every plant below cleared Kirtland's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kirtland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Kirtland
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Kirtland, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kirtland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kirtland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BP OIL CO. #04737Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SPEEDWAY # 3201Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CLEVELAND ELECTRIC ILLUMINATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WHOLESALE CHANNEL LETTERSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- PREMIER MACHINE PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- D. FARINACCI EXCAVATING CO., INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ENBRIDGE GAS OHIOBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SNIDER AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- EXPRESS MUFFLER & BRAKE CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- KIRTLAND AUTO CENTERBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #10613Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- KIRTLAND BOARD OF EDUCATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kirtland'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 Kirtland.
Total Sites
1,211
within ~10 miles of Kirtland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kirtland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kirtland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kirtland, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 151 sites within ~10 miles of Kirtland. 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 Kirtland
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 Kirtland average
Your land is one point inside Kirtland
Everything above resolves to Kirtland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 city 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 Kirtland Average
Kirtland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Kirtland
- ●One soil character for all of Kirtland
- ●Frost dates read at Kirtland's scale: Apr 16 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kirtland's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kirtland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kirtland, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kirtland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kirtland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kirtland average
How we know this about Kirtland
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Kirtland’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Kirtland
When does frost risk typically end in Kirtland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kirtland typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Kirtland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kirtland typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kirtland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kirtland sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 27, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kirtland?
The federal record around Kirtland is a meaningful one — 1,211 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (525), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Kirtland?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kirtland's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kirtland'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 Kirtland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kirtland's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,669 acres it covers and 1,211 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kirtland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kirtland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Nov 10 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,211 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kirtland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kirtland's boundary and the 10,669 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kirtland sits in the Erie Drift Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kirtlandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kirtland's 10,669 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kirtland's 10,669 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kirtland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,669 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Kirtland-wide figureread your own land →