Marne, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Marne, 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 Marne 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 Marne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marne — the short answer
Marne, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 561 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 561 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 Marne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marne's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marne
Each reading below is measured for Marne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarne runs about 199 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
MeasuredMarne 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 Marne is in
Marne sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Licking County.
What Grows in Marne
Every plant below cleared Marne's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marne?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Marne
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Marne, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Marne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LI-31Nitrate · 1600 ft
- HOUSTON PLUMBING & HEATING, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- LI-32Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- GERMANS BUS SALES & SERVICE *Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- MADISON TWP TRUSTEESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LICKING VALLEY JR HIGH-LICKING VALLEY MIDDLE SCHBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- ALLTEL OHIO, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #11245Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- WRAP TAK LLCBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- VILLAGE CROSSINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- NEWARK TOOL DIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- NEWARK PROCESSING CO, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marne'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 Marne.
Total Sites
340
within ~10 miles of Marne
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marne, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Marne — Superfund (5 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Marne
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 Marne average
Your land is one point inside Marne
Everything above resolves to Marne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 561 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 Marne Average
Marne Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Marne
- ●One soil character for all of Marne
- ●Frost dates read at Marne's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marne's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marne, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marne average
How we know this about Marne
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 Marne’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 Marne
When does frost risk typically end in Marne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marne typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Marne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marne typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marne sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 15, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marne?
The federal record around Marne is a meaningful one — 340 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (175), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Marne?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marne's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marne'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 Marne’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Marne's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 561 acres it covers and 340 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 29 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 340 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marne, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marne's boundary and the 561 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marne's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Marnelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marne's 561 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Licking County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Licking 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 Licking County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marne's 561 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 561 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Marne-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioMarne sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides