Moreland Hills, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Moreland Hills, 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 Moreland Hills 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 Moreland Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Moreland Hills — the short answer
Moreland Hills, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 5K 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Moreland Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moreland Hills's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moreland Hills
Each reading below is measured for Moreland Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoreland Hills runs about 218 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
MeasuredMoreland Hills 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 Moreland Hills is in
Moreland Hills sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Moreland Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cuyahoga County.
What Grows in Moreland Hills
Every plant below cleared Moreland Hills's own zone 6a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moreland Hills?
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 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 15 — 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 Moreland Hills
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Moreland Hills, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Moreland Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moreland Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHAGRIN VALLEY COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MORELAND HILLS 76Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MORELAND ONE STOP SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SUNOCO 0001-7657 *Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- BP OIL CO. #04823Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MORELAND HILLS AUTO SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ORANGE VILLAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BEECH BROOKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- AUBURN CORNER BAIT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- RESIDENTIALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- WATERWAY GAS & WASHBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- WATERWAY GAS & WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moreland Hills'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 Moreland Hills.
Total Sites
1,874
within ~10 miles of Moreland Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moreland Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moreland Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moreland Hills, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 181 sites within ~10 miles of Moreland Hills. 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 Moreland Hills
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 Moreland Hills average
Your land is one point inside Moreland Hills
Everything above resolves to Moreland Hills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Moreland Hills Average
Moreland Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Moreland Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Moreland Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Moreland Hills's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moreland Hills's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moreland Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moreland Hills, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moreland Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moreland Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moreland Hills average
How we know this about Moreland Hills
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 Moreland Hills’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 Moreland Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Moreland Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moreland Hills 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 Moreland Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moreland Hills typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moreland Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moreland Hills sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Nov 1, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moreland Hills?
The federal record around Moreland Hills is a meaningful one — 1,874 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (931), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Moreland Hills?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Moreland Hills's scale — its 6a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moreland Hills'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 Moreland Hills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Moreland Hills's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,582 acres it covers and 1,874 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moreland Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moreland Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 15 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,874 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moreland Hills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moreland Hills's boundary and the 4,582 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Moreland Hills's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Moreland Hillslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moreland Hills's 4,582 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cuyahoga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cuyahoga 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 Cuyahoga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moreland Hills's 4,582 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moreland Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,582 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Moreland Hills-wide figureread your own land →