Mack, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mack, 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 Mack 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 Mack — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mack — the short answer
Mack, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- 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
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Mack's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mack's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mack
Each reading below is measured for Mack itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMack runs about 221 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
MeasuredMack 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 Mack is in
Mack sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mack's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hamilton County is mostly Eastern Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mack
Every plant below cleared Mack's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mack?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Mack
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Mack, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mack
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mack. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEUMANN GOLFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- OAK HILLS LOCAL SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BS MARKET LLC BDA BRIDGETOWN DRIVE-THRUUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CINCINNATI GAS & ELECTRIC CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- UNITED DAIRY FARMERS #052Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- GEORGE R. BLAZERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- JEFF'S CARRYOUTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- WATER TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- GREEN TOWNSHIP FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- BP OIL NO 08842Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- BP OIL CO. #08842Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- JERRY'S COUNTRY CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mack'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 Mack.
Total Sites
1,573
within ~10 miles of Mack
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
28 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mack
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mack
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mack, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mack — Superfund (28 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (119 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Mack
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 Mack average
Your land is one point inside Mack
Everything above resolves to Mack as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Mack Average
Mack Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Mack
- ●One soil character for all of Mack
- ●Frost dates read at Mack's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mack's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mack
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mack, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mack averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mack — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mack average
How we know this about Mack
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 Mack’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 Mack
When does frost risk typically end in Mack?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mack typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Mack?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mack 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 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mack?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mack sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 27, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mack?
The federal record around Mack is a meaningful one — 1,573 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (914), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Mack?
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 Mack's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mack'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 Mack’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mack's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,702 acres it covers and 1,573 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mack's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mack's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 10 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,573 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mack, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mack's boundary and the 5,702 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mack sits in the Interior Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Macklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mack's 5,702 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 Mack's 5,702 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mack you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,702 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Mack-wide figureread your own land →
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