Paulding, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Paulding, 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 Paulding 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 Paulding — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paulding — the short answer
Paulding, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Paulding's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paulding's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paulding
Each reading below is measured for Paulding itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPaulding runs about 196 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
MeasuredPaulding 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 Paulding is in
Paulding sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paulding's own centroid rather than borrowed from Paulding County.
What Grows in Paulding
Every plant below cleared Paulding's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paulding?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Paulding
Survey cells within 31 miles of Paulding checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 31 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Paulding
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paulding. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HERBERT E. ORR COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 600 ft
- PAULDING EXEMPED VILLAGE SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CERTIFIED OIL CO. #364Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ORPHANED FORMER GILLEN OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BP OIL COBrownfields · 2000 ft
- INTEGRITY FORD INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- STYKEMAIN CHEVROLET OLDSMOBILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WINKLE CHEVROLET, OLDS, PONTIACUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- STYKEMAN CHEVROLET-PONTIAC, INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- THE PAULDING CONSUMERS & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ALLTEL OHIO, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- INTEGRITY FORD INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paulding'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 Paulding.
Total Sites
84
within ~10 miles of Paulding
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paulding
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paulding
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paulding, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Paulding. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Paulding
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 Paulding average
Your land is one point inside Paulding
Everything above resolves to Paulding as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Paulding Average
Paulding Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Paulding
- ●One soil character for all of Paulding
- ●Frost dates read at Paulding's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paulding's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paulding
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paulding, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paulding averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paulding — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paulding average
How we know this about Paulding
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 Paulding’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 Paulding
When does frost risk typically end in Paulding?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paulding typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Paulding?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paulding typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paulding?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paulding sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 13, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paulding?
The federal record around Paulding is a meaningful one — 84 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Paulding?
From about Sep 27 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 Oct 27 (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 Oct 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paulding's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paulding'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 Paulding’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Paulding's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,534 acres it covers and 84 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paulding's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paulding's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 27 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 84 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paulding, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paulding's boundary and the 1,534 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paulding's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Paulding 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 Paulding's 1,534 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Paulding County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Paulding 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 Paulding County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paulding's 1,534 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paulding you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,534 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Paulding-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioPaulding sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.