Orwell, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Orwell, 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 Orwell 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 Orwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Orwell — the short answer
Orwell, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 6a is Orwell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orwell's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Orwell's own 30-year record measures about 199 days between 28°F killing freezes — 34 days shorter than Ashtabula County's ~233. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Orwell's ~199-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orwell
Each reading below is measured for Orwell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrwell runs about 199 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
MeasuredOrwell 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 Orwell is in
Orwell sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Orwell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ashtabula County.
What Grows in Orwell
Every plant below cleared Orwell's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orwell?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Orwell
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Orwell, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Orwell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orwell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIDWAY CHEVROLET INCBrownfields · 600 ft
- ORWELL DRY CLEANERS *Brownfields · 1100 ft
- LEES TIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FORMER GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ORWELL VILLAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ORWELL FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GRAND VALLEY HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ORWELL AMOCOBrownfields · 2500 ft
- TRUE NORTH # 115Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- FASCO MACHINE PRODUCTS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Save A Lot / Orwell PetroleumUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #4728Brownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orwell'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 Orwell.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orwell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orwell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orwell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Orwell — Superfund (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Orwell
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 Orwell average
Your land is one point inside Orwell
Everything above resolves to Orwell as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Orwell Average
Orwell Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Orwell
- ●One soil character for all of Orwell
- ●Frost dates read at Orwell's scale: Apr 21 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orwell's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orwell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orwell, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orwell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orwell average
How we know this about Orwell
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 Orwell’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 Orwell
When does frost risk typically end in Orwell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orwell typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Orwell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orwell typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orwell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orwell sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 23, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orwell?
The federal record around Orwell is a meaningful one — 71 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), the nearest Brownfields 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 Orwell?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Orwell's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orwell'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 Orwell’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Orwell's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,229 acres it covers and 71 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orwell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orwell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Nov 6 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 71 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orwell, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orwell's boundary and the 1,229 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Orwell's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Orwelllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Orwell's 1,229 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ashtabula County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ashtabula 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 Ashtabula County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Orwell's 1,229 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orwell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,229 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Orwell-wide figureread your own land →