Loveland, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Loveland, 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 Loveland 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 Loveland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Loveland — the short answer
Loveland, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- 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 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Loveland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Loveland's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Loveland
Each reading below is measured for Loveland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLoveland runs about 225 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
MeasuredLoveland 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 Loveland is in
Loveland sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Loveland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hamilton County.
What Grows in Loveland
Every plant below cleared Loveland's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Loveland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Loveland
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from Loveland, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Loveland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Loveland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNITED DAIRY FARMERS #048Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- KINGS FORDBrownfields · 900 ft
- BROOMSTICKS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- DONISI MIRROR COToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- DAIRY MART #5473Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- UNION AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #4544Brownfields · 1400 ft
- SCHUTTE CLEANERS H3955Brownfields · 2000 ft
- CAPITOL CLEANERS *Brownfields · 2200 ft
- KROGER CO FUEL CENTER #413Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- NISBET LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MID AMERICAN TIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Loveland'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 Loveland.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Loveland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Loveland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Loveland, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 143 sites within ~10 miles of Loveland. 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 Loveland
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 Loveland average
Your land is one point inside Loveland
Everything above resolves to Loveland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Loveland Average
Loveland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Loveland
- ●One soil character for all of Loveland
- ●Frost dates read at Loveland's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Loveland's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Loveland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Loveland, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Loveland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Loveland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Loveland average
How we know this about Loveland
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 Loveland’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 Loveland
When does frost risk typically end in Loveland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Loveland 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 Loveland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Loveland typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Loveland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Loveland sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 29, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Loveland?
The federal record around Loveland runs heavier than most — 1,277 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (630), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Loveland?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Loveland's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Loveland'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 Loveland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Loveland's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,392 acres it covers and 1,277 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Loveland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Loveland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 12 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,277 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Loveland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Loveland's boundary and the 3,392 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Loveland's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lovelandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Loveland's 3,392 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 Loveland's 3,392 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Loveland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,392 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Loveland-wide figureread your own land →
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