Macksburg, 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.
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 Macksburg, 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 Macksburg 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 Macksburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Macksburg — the short answer
Macksburg, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 138 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 138 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 Macksburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Macksburg's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Macksburg
Each reading below is measured for Macksburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMacksburg runs about 202 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
MeasuredMacksburg 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 Macksburg is in
Macksburg sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Macksburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Macksburg
Every plant below cleared Macksburg's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Macksburg?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Macksburg
Survey cells within 31 miles of Macksburg checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 34 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Macksburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Macksburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- E&E FARMS(FORMER WAREHOUSE PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ODOT MACKSBURG OUTPOSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- B & N COAL, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- B & N COAL INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- GUY'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- ABANDONED USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- SOUTHEASTERN OHIO LIBRARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- CROCK C & DD LANDFILLBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- HENTHORNE'S TIRES & GUNSBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- FORMER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- SALEM ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- CALDWELL VILLAGE PWSPFAS · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Macksburg'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 Macksburg.
Total Sites
77
within ~10 miles of Macksburg
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Macksburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Macksburg
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Macksburg
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 Macksburg average
Your land is one point inside Macksburg
Everything above resolves to Macksburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 138 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 Macksburg Average
Macksburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Macksburg
- ●One soil character for all of Macksburg
- ●Frost dates read at Macksburg's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Macksburg's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Macksburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Macksburg, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Macksburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Macksburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Macksburg average
How we know this about Macksburg
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 Macksburg’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 Macksburg
When does frost risk typically end in Macksburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Macksburg typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Macksburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Macksburg typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Macksburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Macksburg sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 16, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Macksburg?
The federal record around Macksburg is a meaningful one — 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Macksburg?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Macksburg's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Macksburg'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 Macksburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Macksburg's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 138 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Macksburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Macksburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 30 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Macksburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Macksburg's boundary and the 138 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Macksburg's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Macksburg 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 Macksburg's 138 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Macksburg's 138 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Macksburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 138 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Macksburg-wide figureread your own land →
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