Marlboro, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Marlboro, 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 Marlboro 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 Marlboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marlboro — the short answer
Marlboro, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 275 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 275 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 Marlboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marlboro's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marlboro
Each reading below is measured for Marlboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarlboro runs about 210 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
MeasuredMarlboro 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 Marlboro is in
Marlboro sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marlboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stark County.
What Grows in Marlboro
Every plant below cleared Marlboro's own zone 6a and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marlboro?
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 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 Nov 7 — 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 Marlboro
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Marlboro, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Marlboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marlboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VALLEY SYSTEMS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MARLBORO BODY SHOPBrownfields · 650 ft
- BUCKEYE PACKAGING CO INC (1576011509)Brownfields · 850 ft
- BUCKEYE PACKAGING CO INC (1576011509)Toxics Release Inventory · 850 ft
- SCHILLIGS FOOD MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MARLBORO MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- MARLBORO VOLUNTEER FIRE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SUNSET STRIP AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MARLBORO TOWNSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MARY E. EDDLEMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- ST-141Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- TANNENHAUT GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marlboro'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 Marlboro.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marlboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marlboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marlboro, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Marlboro — Toxics Release Inventory (38 sites) and Superfund (6 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 Marlboro
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 Marlboro average
Your land is one point inside Marlboro
Everything above resolves to Marlboro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 275 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 Marlboro Average
Marlboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Marlboro
- ●One soil character for all of Marlboro
- ●Frost dates read at Marlboro's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marlboro's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marlboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marlboro, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marlboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marlboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marlboro average
How we know this about Marlboro
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 Marlboro’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 Marlboro
When does frost risk typically end in Marlboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marlboro 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 Marlboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marlboro typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marlboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marlboro sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 24, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marlboro?
The federal record around Marlboro is a meaningful one — 422 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (219), 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 Marlboro?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marlboro's scale — its 6a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marlboro'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 Marlboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Marlboro's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 275 acres it covers and 422 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marlboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marlboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 7 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 422 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marlboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marlboro's boundary and the 275 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marlboro's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Marlborolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marlboro's 275 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stark 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 Stark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marlboro's 275 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marlboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 275 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 Marlboro-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioMarlboro sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides