Minerva, 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.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Minerva, 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 Minerva 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 Minerva — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Minerva — the short answer
Minerva, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 6a is Minerva's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Minerva's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Minerva
Each reading below is measured for Minerva itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMinerva runs about 198 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
MeasuredMinerva 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 Minerva is in
Minerva sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Minerva's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Stark County is mostly Erie Drift Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Minerva
Every plant below cleared Minerva's own zone 6a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Minerva?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Minerva
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Minerva, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Minerva
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Minerva. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MINERVA LOCAL SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BP OIL NO 5981Brownfields · 500 ft
- CERTIFIED OIL NO 473 *Brownfields · 550 ft
- MINERVA POLICE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MINERVA FUEL LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MINERVA BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MINERVA CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MINERVA CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ROCKY''S IIIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- K-M-N ENTERPRISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- MURRAY AVE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FORMER BP BULK FACILITY #16106005Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Minerva'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 Minerva.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Minerva
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Minerva
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Minerva, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Minerva — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Minerva
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 Minerva average
Your land is one point inside Minerva
Everything above resolves to Minerva 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 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 Minerva Average
Minerva Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Minerva
- ●One soil character for all of Minerva
- ●Frost dates read at Minerva's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Minerva's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Minerva
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Minerva, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Minerva averages can't show:
We read public map data around Minerva — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Minerva average
How we know this about Minerva
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 Minerva’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 Minerva
When does frost risk typically end in Minerva?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Minerva typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Minerva?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Minerva typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Minerva?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Minerva sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 17, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Minerva?
The federal record around Minerva is a meaningful one — 159 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Minerva?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Minerva's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Minerva'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 Minerva’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Minerva's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,398 acres it covers and 159 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Minerva's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Minerva's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 31 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 159 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Minerva, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Minerva's boundary and the 1,398 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Minerva sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Minervalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Minerva's 1,398 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 Minerva's 1,398 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Minerva you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,398 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Minerva-wide figureread your own land →
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