Mansfield, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Mansfield, 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 Mansfield 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 Mansfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mansfield — the short answer
Mansfield, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 20K 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 Mansfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mansfield's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mansfield
Each reading below is measured for Mansfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMansfield runs about 206 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
MeasuredMansfield 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 Mansfield is in
Mansfield sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mansfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Richland County.
What Grows in Mansfield
Every plant below cleared Mansfield's own zone 6a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mansfield?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Mansfield
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mansfield checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 46 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mansfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mansfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROWLAND AVENUE MERCURY SPILLSuperfund · 900 ft
- GORMAN RUPP COMPANYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- ABANDONED GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CHARLES MILL LAKE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10989Brownfields · 1800 ft
- WESTLYNN SITESuperfund · 1900 ft
- GORMAN RUPP COToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- TAYLOR PLATING COToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- TAYLOR METAL PRODUCTSBrownfields · 2300 ft
- TAYLOR METAL PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #14503Brownfields · 2400 ft
- ORPHANUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mansfield'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 Mansfield.
Total Sites
564
within ~10 miles of Mansfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mansfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mansfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mansfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mansfield — Toxics Release Inventory (54 sites) and Superfund (8 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Mansfield
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 Mansfield average
Your land is one point inside Mansfield
Everything above resolves to Mansfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 20K 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 Mansfield Average
Mansfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mansfield
- ●One soil character for all of Mansfield
- ●Frost dates read at Mansfield's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mansfield's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mansfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mansfield, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mansfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mansfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mansfield average
How we know this about Mansfield
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 Mansfield’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 Mansfield
When does frost risk typically end in Mansfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mansfield typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Mansfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mansfield typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mansfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mansfield sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 23, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mansfield?
The federal record around Mansfield is a meaningful one — 564 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (264), the nearest Superfund record about 0.2 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 Mansfield?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mansfield's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mansfield'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 Mansfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mansfield's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 19,761 acres it covers and 564 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mansfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mansfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Nov 6 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 564 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mansfield, the closest Superfund record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mansfield's boundary and the 19,761 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mansfield's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mansfield 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 Mansfield's 19,761 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 Mansfield's 19,761 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mansfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 19,761 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Mansfield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioMansfield sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides