New Waterford, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 New Waterford, 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 Waterford 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 Waterford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Waterford — the short answer
New Waterford, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 580 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 580 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 New Waterford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Waterford's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Waterford
Each reading below is measured for New Waterford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Waterford 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
MeasuredNew Waterford 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 New Waterford is in
New Waterford sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Waterford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Columbiana County.
What Grows in New Waterford
Every plant below cleared New Waterford'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 New Waterford?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around New Waterford
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from New Waterford, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Waterford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Waterford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CRESTVIEW BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- WILSON'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NEW WATERFORD FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SUSTAIN LLCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- MAJESTIC MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- BETTER MANAGEMENT CORPORATION OF OHIO INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- CRESTVIEW AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- D.P. FUEL /GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- M & T TRUCKING, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- WALTS BODY SHOP LLCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- C & K OIL CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CENTURY MAIN STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Waterford'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 Waterford.
Total Sites
303
within ~10 miles of New Waterford
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Waterford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Waterford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Waterford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Waterford — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in New Waterford
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 Waterford average
Your land is one point inside New Waterford
Everything above resolves to New Waterford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 580 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 New Waterford Average
New Waterford Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across New Waterford
- ●One soil character for all of New Waterford
- ●Frost dates read at New Waterford's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Waterford's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Waterford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Waterford, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Waterford averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Waterford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Waterford average
How we know this about New Waterford
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 New Waterford’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 New Waterford
When does frost risk typically end in New Waterford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Waterford typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in New Waterford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Waterford typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Waterford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Waterford sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 13, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Waterford?
The federal record around New Waterford is a meaningful one — 303 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (170), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Waterford?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Waterford's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Waterford'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 Waterford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Waterford's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 580 acres it covers and 303 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Waterford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Waterford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 27 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 303 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Waterford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Waterford's boundary and the 580 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 New Waterford's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Waterfordlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Waterford's 580 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Columbiana County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Columbiana 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 Columbiana County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Waterford's 580 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Waterford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 580 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Waterford-wide figureread your own land →
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