Lyons, 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.
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 Lyons, 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 Lyons 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 Lyons — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lyons — the short answer
Lyons, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 453 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 453 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 Lyons's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lyons's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lyons
Each reading below is measured for Lyons itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLyons runs about 192 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
MeasuredLyons 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 Lyons is in
Lyons sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lyons's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fulton County.
What Grows in Lyons
Every plant below cleared Lyons's own zone 6a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lyons?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Lyons
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Lyons, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lyons
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lyons. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ANDERSONS MANAGEMENT CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- WILBUR ELLISBrownfields · 250 ft
- Lyons Main StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- DUNBAR INGALL CHEVROLET COBrownfields · 650 ft
- LYONS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DUNBAL INGALL CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- AT&TUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PAHL'S READY MIX, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BOGER FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- DAVID NEWBURYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- PRENTISS FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lyons'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 Lyons.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of Lyons
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lyons
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lyons
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lyons, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lyons — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Lyons
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 Lyons average
Your land is one point inside Lyons
Everything above resolves to Lyons as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 453 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 Lyons Average
Lyons Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lyons
- ●One soil character for all of Lyons
- ●Frost dates read at Lyons's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lyons's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lyons
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lyons, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lyons averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lyons — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lyons average
How we know this about Lyons
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 Lyons’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 Lyons
When does frost risk typically end in Lyons?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lyons 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 Lyons?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lyons typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lyons?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lyons sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 11, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lyons?
The federal record around Lyons is a meaningful one — 130 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (72), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lyons?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lyons's scale — its 6a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lyons'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 Lyons’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lyons's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 453 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lyons's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lyons's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 25 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lyons, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lyons's boundary and the 453 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lyons's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lyonslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lyons's 453 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fulton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fulton 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 Fulton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lyons's 453 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lyons you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 453 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lyons-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioLyons sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.