Lucas, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Lucas, 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 Lucas 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 Lucas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lucas — the short answer
Lucas, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 433 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 433 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 Lucas's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lucas's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lucas
Each reading below is measured for Lucas itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLucas runs about 194 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
MeasuredLucas 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 Lucas is in
Lucas sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lucas's own centroid rather than borrowed from Richland County.
What Grows in Lucas
Every plant below cleared Lucas's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lucas?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Lucas
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lucas checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 47 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lucas
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lucas. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- R. CHARLES VAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- ESTATE OF CLAYTON HEIMBERGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MONROE TOWNSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- VILLAGE OF LUCASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LUCAS LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MORGAN'S ONE TRIP LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- GARNSEY AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS - CHARLES MILL LAKEBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- LITTLE WASHINGTON CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ELITE TNT ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- BONNIE RAIN (ORPHANED)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lucas'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 Lucas.
Total Sites
533
within ~10 miles of Lucas
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lucas
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lucas
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lucas, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lucas — Toxics Release Inventory (49 sites) and Superfund (8 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Lucas
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 Lucas average
Your land is one point inside Lucas
Everything above resolves to Lucas as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 433 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 Lucas Average
Lucas Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lucas
- ●One soil character for all of Lucas
- ●Frost dates read at Lucas's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lucas's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lucas
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lucas, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lucas averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lucas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lucas average
How we know this about Lucas
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 Lucas’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 Lucas
When does frost risk typically end in Lucas?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lucas typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Lucas?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lucas typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lucas?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lucas sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 14, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lucas?
The federal record around Lucas is a meaningful one — 533 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (265), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Lucas?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lucas's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lucas'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 Lucas’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lucas's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 433 acres it covers and 533 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lucas's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lucas's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 28 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 533 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lucas, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lucas's boundary and the 433 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lucas's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lucas 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 Lucas's 433 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Richland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Richland 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 Richland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lucas's 433 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lucas you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 433 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Lucas-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioLucas sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides