Minford, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Minford, 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 Minford 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 Minford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Minford — the short answer
Minford, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- 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 6b is Minford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Minford's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Minford
Each reading below is measured for Minford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMinford runs about 213 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
MeasuredMinford sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Minford is in
Minford sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Minford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scioto County.
What Grows in Minford
Every plant below cleared Minford's own zone 6b and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Minford?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Minford
Survey cells within 31 miles of Minford checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 73 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Minford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Minford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPEEDWAY SUPERAMERICA #3731Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MINFORD KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5980Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- SHOEMAKERS SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- BENNETT'S CUSTOM TRUCKSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SHOEMAKER SERVICE CTR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BENNETTS COLLISION REPAIR CENTERBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MULETOWN MINI MART LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PENDLETON'S COLLISION REPAIRBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- SCIOTO COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- OLD BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MINFORD BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Minford'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 Minford.
Total Sites
171
within ~10 miles of Minford
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Minford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Minford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Minford, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Minford. 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.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Minford
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 Minford average
Your land is one point inside Minford
Everything above resolves to Minford 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 Minford Average
Minford Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Minford
- ●One soil character for all of Minford
- ●Frost dates read at Minford's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Minford's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Minford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Minford, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Minford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Minford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Minford average
How we know this about Minford
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 Minford’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 Minford
When does frost risk typically end in Minford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Minford typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Minford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Minford typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Minford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Minford sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 20, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Minford?
The federal record around Minford is a meaningful one — 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (104), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Minford?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Minford's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Minford'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 Minford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Minford's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,116 acres it covers and 171 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Minford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Minford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 3 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 171 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Minford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Minford's boundary and the 1,116 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Minford's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Minford 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 Minford's 1,116 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scioto County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scioto 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 Scioto County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Minford's 1,116 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Minford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,116 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Minford-wide figureread your own land →