North College Hill, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in North College Hill, 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 College Hill 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 College Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North College Hill — the short answer
North College Hill, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 College Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North College Hill's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North College Hill
Each reading below is measured for North College Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth College Hill runs about 225 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 College Hill 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 College Hill is in
North College Hill sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North College Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hamilton County.
What Grows in North College Hill
Every plant below cleared North College Hill's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North College Hill?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 North College Hill
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from North College Hill, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North College Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North College Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF NORTH COLLEGE HILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CLARK OIL SERVICE STATION #8093Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BP OIL CO. #09011Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BP OIL NO 09011Brownfields · 700 ft
- SHELL OIL CO. #23460360110Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- UNITED DAIRY FARMERS #115Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WALGREENS #11630Brownfields · 900 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8058Brownfields · 1100 ft
- SPRINGDALE CLEANERSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #14685Brownfields · 1500 ft
- VALVOLINE INSTANT OIL CHANGEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- JOE LEACH SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North College Hill'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 College Hill.
Total Sites
3,125
within ~10 miles of North College Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
49 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North College Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North College Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North College Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North College Hill — Toxics Release Inventory (339 sites) and Superfund (49 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 North College Hill
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 College Hill average
Your land is one point inside North College Hill
Everything above resolves to North College Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 College Hill Average
North College Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across North College Hill
- ●One soil character for all of North College Hill
- ●Frost dates read at North College Hill's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North College Hill's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North College Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North College Hill, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North College Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around North College Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North College Hill average
How we know this about North College Hill
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 College Hill’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 College Hill
When does frost risk typically end in North College Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North College Hill typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in North College Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North College Hill typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North College Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North College Hill sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 28, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North College Hill?
The federal record around North College Hill is a meaningful one — 3,125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,638), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 College Hill?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North College Hill's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North College Hill'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 College Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North College Hill's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,165 acres it covers and 3,125 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North College Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North College Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 11 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North College Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North College Hill's boundary and the 1,165 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North College Hill's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North College Hilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North College Hill's 1,165 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hamilton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hamilton 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 Hamilton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North College Hill's 1,165 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North College Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,165 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 College Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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