Moscow, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Moscow, 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 Moscow 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 Moscow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Moscow — the short answer
Moscow, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 235 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 235 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 Moscow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moscow's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moscow
Each reading below is measured for Moscow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoscow runs about 223 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
MeasuredMoscow 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 Moscow is in
Moscow sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Moscow's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clermont County is mostly Eastern Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Moscow
Every plant below cleared Moscow's own zone 6b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moscow?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 10 — 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 Moscow
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Moscow, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Moscow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moscow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ABANDONED UST FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- VILLAGE OF MOSCOWUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 1ST STOP #56Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DYNEGY ZIMMER, LLCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- DYNEGY ZIMMER, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- STEVEN C & JENNIFER GROOMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LYKINS MOSCOWUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ZIMMER POWER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Black River DivisionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CARMEUSE LIME INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- Kwik ShoppeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- California MarketplaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moscow'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 Moscow.
Total Sites
120
within ~10 miles of Moscow
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moscow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moscow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moscow, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 87 sites within ~10 miles of Moscow. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Moscow
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 Moscow average
Your land is one point inside Moscow
Everything above resolves to Moscow as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 235 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 Moscow Average
Moscow Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Moscow
- ●One soil character for all of Moscow
- ●Frost dates read at Moscow's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moscow's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moscow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moscow, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moscow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moscow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moscow average
How we know this about Moscow
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 Moscow’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 Moscow
When does frost risk typically end in Moscow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moscow 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 Moscow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moscow typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moscow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moscow sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 27, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moscow?
The federal record around Moscow is a meaningful one — 120 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Moscow?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Moscow's scale — its 6b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moscow'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 Moscow’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Moscow's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 235 acres it covers and 120 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moscow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moscow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 10 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 120 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moscow, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moscow's boundary and the 235 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Moscow sits in the Interior Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Moscowlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moscow's 235 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clermont County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clermont 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 Clermont County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moscow's 235 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moscow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 235 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Moscow-wide figureread your own land →
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