Otway, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Otway, 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 Otway 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 Otway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Otway — the short answer
Otway, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 112 acres of town.
- 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 112 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 Otway's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Otway's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Otway
Each reading below is measured for Otway itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOtway runs about 214 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
MeasuredOtway 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 Otway is in
Otway sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Otway's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scioto County.
What Grows in Otway
Every plant below cleared Otway's own zone 6b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Otway?
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 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 4 — 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 Otway
Survey cells within 31 miles of Otway checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 71 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Otway
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Otway. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHRIS GAMBILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8787Brownfields · 450 ft
- THE DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- OTWAY COMMUNITY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LISTON'S GAS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- ADKINS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- HENLEY TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BLANKENSHIP GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- TAYLOR'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- EMERY'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- MARY GIAMPORCAROUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- IST STOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Otway'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 Otway.
Total Sites
36
within ~10 miles of Otway
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Otway
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Otway
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Otway, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 25 sites within ~10 miles of Otway. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Otway
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 Otway average
Your land is one point inside Otway
Everything above resolves to Otway as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 112 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 Otway Average
Otway Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Otway
- ●One soil character for all of Otway
- ●Frost dates read at Otway's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Otway's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Otway
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Otway, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Otway averages can't show:
We read public map data around Otway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Otway average
How we know this about Otway
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 Otway’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 Otway
When does frost risk typically end in Otway?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Otway 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 Otway?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Otway typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Otway?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Otway sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 21, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Otway?
The federal record around Otway is a meaningful one — 36 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), 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 Otway?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Otway's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Otway'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 Otway’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Otway's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 112 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Otway's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Otway's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 4 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Otway, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Otway's boundary and the 112 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Otway's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Otway checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Otway's 112 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scioto County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scioto 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 Scioto County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Otway's 112 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Otway you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 112 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 Otway-wide figureread your own land →