Pepper Pike, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Pepper Pike, 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 Pepper Pike 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 Pepper Pike — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pepper Pike — the short answer
Pepper Pike, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Pepper Pike's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pepper Pike's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pepper Pike
Each reading below is measured for Pepper Pike itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPepper Pike runs about 209 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
MeasuredPepper Pike 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 Pepper Pike is in
Pepper Pike sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pepper Pike's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cuyahoga County.
What Grows in Pepper Pike
Every plant below cleared Pepper Pike's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pepper Pike?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Pepper Pike
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Pepper Pike, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pepper Pike
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pepper Pike. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COUNTRY CLUB INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- URSULINE ACADEMY OF CLEVELANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NORTHER OHIO SCRAP SERVICE CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- CITY OF PEPPER PIKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Procare Automotive Service SolutUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WATERWAY GAS & WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WATERWAY GAS & WASHBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- URSULINE COLLEGEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- UNIVERSITY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- PEPPER PIKE CLUB CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- UNIVERSITY SCHOOL-UPPER SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- RESIDENTIALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pepper Pike'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 Pepper Pike.
Total Sites
2,605
within ~10 miles of Pepper Pike
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
43 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pepper Pike
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pepper Pike
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pepper Pike, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pepper Pike — Toxics Release Inventory (281 sites) and Superfund (43 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Pepper Pike
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 Pepper Pike average
Your land is one point inside Pepper Pike
Everything above resolves to Pepper Pike as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Pepper Pike Average
Pepper Pike Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pepper Pike
- ●One soil character for all of Pepper Pike
- ●Frost dates read at Pepper Pike's scale: Apr 16 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pepper Pike's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pepper Pike
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pepper Pike, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pepper Pike averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pepper Pike — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pepper Pike average
How we know this about Pepper Pike
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 Pepper Pike’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 Pepper Pike
When does frost risk typically end in Pepper Pike?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pepper Pike typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Pepper Pike?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pepper Pike typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pepper Pike?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pepper Pike sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 28, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pepper Pike?
The federal record around Pepper Pike is a meaningful one — 2,605 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,322), the nearest Brownfields 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 Pepper Pike?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pepper Pike's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pepper Pike'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 Pepper Pike’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pepper Pike's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,557 acres it covers and 2,605 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pepper Pike's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pepper Pike's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Nov 11 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,605 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pepper Pike, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pepper Pike's boundary and the 4,557 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pepper Pike's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pepper Pikelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pepper Pike's 4,557 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cuyahoga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cuyahoga 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 Cuyahoga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pepper Pike's 4,557 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pepper Pike you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,557 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Pepper Pike-wide figureread your own land →