Peninsula, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Peninsula, 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 Peninsula 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 Peninsula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Peninsula — the short answer
Peninsula, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Peninsula's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peninsula's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Peninsula
Each reading below is measured for Peninsula itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPeninsula runs about 224 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
MeasuredPeninsula 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 Peninsula is in
Peninsula sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Peninsula's own centroid rather than borrowed from Summit County.
What Grows in Peninsula
Every plant below cleared Peninsula's own zone 6b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Peninsula?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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 Peninsula
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Peninsula, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Peninsula
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Peninsula. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRANDYWINE COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BOSTON TOWNSHIP SERVICE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ALLTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CUYAHOGA FALLS CITY PWSPFAS · 0.7 mi
- ANN HOUSTON ALEXANDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NATIONAL PARK SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FRANK J LAUSCHE BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ADJUTANT GENERAL OMS #8BUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- MD GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BOSTON MILLS SKI RESORT-BOSTON MILLS SKI RESORTBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- KREJCI DUMPSuperfund · 2.4 mi
- JANLIN COMPANY, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Peninsula'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 Peninsula.
Total Sites
1,227
within ~10 miles of Peninsula
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Peninsula
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Peninsula
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Peninsula, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 133 sites within ~10 miles of Peninsula. 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 Peninsula
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 Peninsula average
Your land is one point inside Peninsula
Everything above resolves to Peninsula as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Peninsula Average
Peninsula Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Peninsula
- ●One soil character for all of Peninsula
- ●Frost dates read at Peninsula's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peninsula's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Peninsula
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peninsula, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peninsula averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peninsula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peninsula average
How we know this about Peninsula
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 Peninsula’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 Peninsula
When does frost risk typically end in Peninsula?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peninsula typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Peninsula?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Peninsula typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Peninsula?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peninsula sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Nov 1, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peninsula?
The federal record around Peninsula is a meaningful one — 1,227 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (558), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Peninsula?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Peninsula's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peninsula'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 Peninsula’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Peninsula's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,820 acres it covers and 1,227 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peninsula's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Peninsula's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 15 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,227 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Peninsula, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Peninsula's boundary and the 2,820 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Peninsula's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Peninsulalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Peninsula's 2,820 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Summit County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Summit 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 Summit County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Peninsula's 2,820 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Peninsula you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,820 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Peninsula-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioPeninsula sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides