New Franklin, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 New Franklin, 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 New Franklin 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 New Franklin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Franklin — the short answer
New Franklin, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 16K 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 New Franklin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Franklin's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Franklin
Each reading below is measured for New Franklin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Franklin 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
MeasuredNew Franklin 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 New Franklin is in
New Franklin sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Franklin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Summit County.
What Grows in New Franklin
Every plant below cleared New Franklin'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 New Franklin?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around New Franklin
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from New Franklin, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Franklin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Franklin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WYAN'S AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- KNACK'S SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #9173Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- SPEEDWAY GAS UNIT 3672 PWS-SPEEDWAY 3672Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- SPEEDWAY #3672Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ODNR PORTAGE LAKES STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MANCHESTER LOCAL SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LO BOY OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- OHIO BELL TELEPHONE CO. L41132Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BUTCHER & SON INC C&D LANDFILLBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- ZELRAY ESTATES WWTP #48Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ENBRIDGE GAS OHIOBrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Franklin'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 New Franklin.
Total Sites
1,361
within ~10 miles of New Franklin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Franklin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Franklin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Franklin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Franklin — Toxics Release Inventory (118 sites) and Superfund (18 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in New Franklin
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 New Franklin average
Your land is one point inside New Franklin
Everything above resolves to New Franklin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 16K 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 New Franklin Average
New Franklin Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across New Franklin
- ●One soil character for all of New Franklin
- ●Frost dates read at New Franklin's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Franklin's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Franklin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Franklin, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Franklin averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Franklin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Franklin average
How we know this about New Franklin
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 New Franklin’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 New Franklin
When does frost risk typically end in New Franklin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Franklin 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 New Franklin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Franklin 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 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Franklin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Franklin sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 27, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Franklin?
The federal record around New Franklin is a meaningful one — 1,361 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (677), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 New Franklin?
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 New Franklin's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Franklin'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 New Franklin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Franklin's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 15,992 acres it covers and 1,361 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Franklin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Franklin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 10 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,361 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Franklin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Franklin's boundary and the 15,992 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 New Franklin's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Franklinlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Franklin's 15,992 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Summit County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Summit 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 Summit County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Franklin's 15,992 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Franklin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,992 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 New Franklin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioNew Franklin sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides