Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mentor-on-the-Lake, 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 Mentor-on-the-Lake 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 Mentor-on-the-Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mentor-on-the-Lake — the short answer
Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio: USDA zone 7a, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 7a is Mentor-on-the-Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mentor-on-the-Lake's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mentor-on-the-Lake
Each reading below is measured for Mentor-on-the-Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMentor-on-the-Lake runs about 236 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
MeasuredMentor-on-the-Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Mentor-on-the-Lake is in
Mentor-on-the-Lake sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mentor-on-the-Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Mentor-on-the-Lake
Every plant below cleared Mentor-on-the-Lake's own zone 7a and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mentor-on-the-Lake?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Mentor-on-the-Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Mentor-on-the-Lake, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mentor-on-the-Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mentor-on-the-Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOMMERS DEVELOPMENT GROUPBrownfields · 1800 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5935Brownfields · 1800 ft
- GETGO FROM GIANT EAGLE #3617Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ZAPP''S GASTOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CITY OF MENTOR-ON-THE-LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- REDIGO FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GIANT EAGLE STORE #1217Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- WALGREENS #5820Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- CAL'S MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SHEETZ #526Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- SHEETZ INC #526Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CONVENIENT FOOD MART #3-127Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mentor-on-the-Lake'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 Mentor-on-the-Lake.
Total Sites
862
within ~10 miles of Mentor-on-the-Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mentor-on-the-Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mentor-on-the-Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mentor-on-the-Lake, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 121 sites within ~10 miles of Mentor-on-the-Lake. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Mentor-on-the-Lake
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 Mentor-on-the-Lake average
Your land is one point inside Mentor-on-the-Lake
Everything above resolves to Mentor-on-the-Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Mentor-on-the-Lake Average
Mentor-on-the-Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mentor-on-the-Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Mentor-on-the-Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Mentor-on-the-Lake's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mentor-on-the-Lake's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mentor-on-the-Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mentor-on-the-Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mentor-on-the-Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mentor-on-the-Lake average
How we know this about Mentor-on-the-Lake
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 Mentor-on-the-Lake’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 Mentor-on-the-Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Mentor-on-the-Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mentor-on-the-Lake typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Mentor-on-the-Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mentor-on-the-Lake typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mentor-on-the-Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mentor-on-the-Lake sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Nov 9, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mentor-on-the-Lake?
The federal record around Mentor-on-the-Lake is a meaningful one — 862 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (377), the nearest Brownfields 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 Mentor-on-the-Lake?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mentor-on-the-Lake's scale — its 7a band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mentor-on-the-Lake'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 Mentor-on-the-Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mentor-on-the-Lake's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,032 acres it covers and 862 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mentor-on-the-Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mentor-on-the-Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 23 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 862 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mentor-on-the-Lake, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mentor-on-the-Lake's boundary and the 1,032 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mentor-on-the-Lake's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mentor-on-the-Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mentor-on-the-Lake's 1,032 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mentor-on-the-Lake's 1,032 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mentor-on-the-Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,032 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Mentor-on-the-Lake-wide figureread your own land →