North Canton, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Canton, 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 North Canton 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 North Canton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Canton — the short answer
North Canton, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- 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
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 North Canton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Canton's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Canton
Each reading below is measured for North Canton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Canton runs about 216 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
MeasuredNorth Canton 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 North Canton is in
North Canton sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Canton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stark County.
What Grows in North Canton
Every plant below cleared North Canton's own zone 6b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Canton?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around North Canton
Spotted lanternfly documented 18 miles from North Canton, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Canton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Canton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JAMES R. STALEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MAPLE STREET COMMERCEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MAPLE STREET COMMERCEToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- CANTON TRACTOR SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FORMER HOOVER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CLARK STORE NO 1643Brownfields · 1900 ft
- NORTH CANTON CITY SCH BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WALGREENS #3261Brownfields · 2000 ft
- CAIN TOYOTA CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WILLIS MOTOR CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DIEBOLD NIXDORF - ORCHARDToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- AIRTEX PRODUCTSBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Canton'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 North Canton.
Total Sites
1,361
within ~10 miles of North Canton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
14 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Canton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Canton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Canton, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 134 sites within ~10 miles of North Canton. 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 North Canton
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 North Canton average
Your land is one point inside North Canton
Everything above resolves to North Canton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 North Canton Average
North Canton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across North Canton
- ●One soil character for all of North Canton
- ●Frost dates read at North Canton's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Canton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Canton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Canton, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Canton averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Canton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Canton average
How we know this about North Canton
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 North Canton’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 North Canton
When does frost risk typically end in North Canton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Canton typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in North Canton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Canton 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 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Canton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Canton sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 27, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Canton?
The federal record around North Canton is a meaningful one — 1,361 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (710), 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 North Canton?
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 North Canton's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Canton'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 North Canton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Canton's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,095 acres it covers and 1,361 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Canton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Canton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 10 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,361 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Canton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Canton's boundary and the 4,095 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Canton's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Cantonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Canton's 4,095 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stark 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 Stark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Canton's 4,095 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Canton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,095 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 North Canton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioNorth Canton sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides