North Ridgeville, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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 North Ridgeville, 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 Ridgeville 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 Ridgeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Ridgeville — the short answer
North Ridgeville, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 15K 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 Ridgeville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Ridgeville's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Ridgeville
Each reading below is measured for North Ridgeville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Ridgeville runs about 226 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 Ridgeville 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 Ridgeville is in
North Ridgeville sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Ridgeville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lorain County is mostly Erie Drift Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in North Ridgeville
Every plant below cleared North Ridgeville's own zone 6b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Ridgeville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around North Ridgeville
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from North Ridgeville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Ridgeville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Ridgeville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORTH RIDGEVILLE CITY PWSPFAS · 1200 ft
- AVON CITY PWSPFAS · 1200 ft
- FIRE STATION #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MR TIRE 1177Brownfields · 1500 ft
- FORMER GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NORTH RIDGEVILLE CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- UNKNOWN (ORPHAN TANK)Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 35985 CTR RIDGE N RIDGEVILLE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ODOT PROJECT AT BP OILBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MAD HATTER MUFFLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ELYRIA TELEPHONE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ELYRIA REPEATERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Ridgeville'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 Ridgeville.
Total Sites
1,346
within ~10 miles of North Ridgeville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Ridgeville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Ridgeville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Ridgeville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 114 sites within ~10 miles of North Ridgeville. 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 Ridgeville
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 Ridgeville average
Your land is one point inside North Ridgeville
Everything above resolves to North Ridgeville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 15K 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 Ridgeville Average
North Ridgeville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across North Ridgeville
- ●One soil character for all of North Ridgeville
- ●Frost dates read at North Ridgeville's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Ridgeville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Ridgeville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Ridgeville, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Ridgeville averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Ridgeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Ridgeville average
How we know this about North Ridgeville
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 Ridgeville’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 Ridgeville
When does frost risk typically end in North Ridgeville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Ridgeville typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in North Ridgeville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Ridgeville typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Ridgeville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Ridgeville sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Nov 2, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Ridgeville?
The federal record around North Ridgeville is a meaningful one — 1,346 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (673), the nearest PFAS 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 Ridgeville?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Ridgeville's scale — its 6b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Ridgeville'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 Ridgeville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Ridgeville's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 15,003 acres it covers and 1,346 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Ridgeville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Ridgeville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 16 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,346 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Ridgeville, the closest PFAS record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Ridgeville's boundary and the 15,003 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- North Ridgeville sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Ridgevillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Ridgeville's 15,003 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lorain County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lorain 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 Lorain County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Ridgeville's 15,003 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Ridgeville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,003 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Ridgeville-wide figureread your own land →
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