Nettle Lake, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nettle Lake, 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 Nettle Lake 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 Nettle Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nettle Lake — the short answer
Nettle Lake, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 163 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 163 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 Nettle Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nettle Lake's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nettle Lake
Each reading below is measured for Nettle Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNettle Lake runs about 194 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
MeasuredNettle Lake 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 Nettle Lake is in
Nettle Lake sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Nettle Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Williams County.
What Grows in Nettle Lake
Every plant below cleared Nettle Lake's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nettle Lake?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Nettle Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Nettle Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 47 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Nettle Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nettle Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BIG B'S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SUS171-1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- AG171-1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- WM-100-P1 OHNitrate · 3.9 mi
- (FORMER) MID TOLL INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Lake Diane Shore Side Plaza IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- BRIGHTMARK BRIDGEWATER RNG LLCBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- C AND R RECYCLERSBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- Hillsdale County Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- Camden B.P. Div. Denison Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- ITR Concession Company LLC Maintenance Storage Area 156Underground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- SUS171-5Nitrate · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nettle Lake'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 Nettle Lake.
Total Sites
125
within ~10 miles of Nettle Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nettle Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nettle Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nettle Lake, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Nettle Lake. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Nettle Lake
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 Nettle Lake average
Your land is one point inside Nettle Lake
Everything above resolves to Nettle Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 163 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 Nettle Lake Average
Nettle Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Nettle Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Nettle Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Nettle Lake's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nettle Lake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nettle Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nettle Lake, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nettle Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nettle Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nettle Lake average
How we know this about Nettle Lake
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 Nettle Lake’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 Nettle Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Nettle Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nettle Lake typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Nettle Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nettle Lake typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nettle Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nettle Lake sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 12, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nettle Lake?
The federal record around Nettle Lake shows 125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Nettle Lake?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nettle Lake's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nettle Lake'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 Nettle Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Nettle Lake's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 163 acres it covers and 125 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nettle Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nettle Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 26 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nettle Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nettle Lake's boundary and the 163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nettle Lake's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Nettle Lake 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 Nettle Lake's 163 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Williams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Williams 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 Williams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nettle Lake's 163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nettle Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 163 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 Nettle Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioNettle Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides