Mount Vernon, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mount Vernon, 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 Mount Vernon 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 Mount Vernon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Vernon — the short answer
Mount Vernon, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Mount Vernon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Vernon's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Vernon
Each reading below is measured for Mount Vernon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Vernon runs about 189 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
MeasuredMount Vernon 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 Mount Vernon is in
Mount Vernon sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Vernon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Knox County.
What Grows in Mount Vernon
Every plant below cleared Mount Vernon's own zone 6a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Vernon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Mount Vernon
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mount Vernon checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mount Vernon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Vernon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF MOUNT VERNON-WASTE WATERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- COOPER ENERGY SERVICESBrownfields · 1200 ft
- HOWARD STREET GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LASZLO & ZORAIDA LENRIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PRESTRESS SERVICES INDUSTRIES, LLC - MOUNT VERNON BRANCHToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- OHIO CONFERENCE OF SEVENTH-DAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- KWIK FILL #S255/290Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HHC-737TH MAINTENANCE MVSBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ODOT MILLWOOD OUTPOSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WENCO OHIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JELD WAN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SHELLY & SANDS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Vernon'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 Mount Vernon.
Total Sites
181
within ~10 miles of Mount Vernon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Vernon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Vernon
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Mount Vernon
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 Mount Vernon average
Your land is one point inside Mount Vernon
Everything above resolves to Mount Vernon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Mount Vernon Average
Mount Vernon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mount Vernon
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Vernon
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Vernon's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Vernon's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Vernon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Vernon, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Vernon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Vernon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Vernon average
How we know this about Mount Vernon
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 Mount Vernon’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 Mount Vernon
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Vernon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Vernon typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Mount Vernon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Vernon typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Vernon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Vernon sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 9, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Vernon?
The federal record around Mount Vernon shows 181 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (107), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mount Vernon?
From about Sep 23 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 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 Oct 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Vernon's scale — its 6a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Vernon'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 Mount Vernon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mount Vernon's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,349 acres it covers and 181 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Vernon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Vernon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 23 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 181 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Vernon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Vernon's boundary and the 6,349 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Vernon's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mount Vernon 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 Mount Vernon's 6,349 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Vernon's 6,349 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Vernon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,349 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 Mount Vernon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioMount Vernon sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides