Ravenna, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ravenna, 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 Ravenna 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 Ravenna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ravenna — the short answer
Ravenna, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- 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
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Ravenna's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ravenna's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ravenna
Each reading below is measured for Ravenna itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRavenna runs about 207 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
MeasuredRavenna 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 Ravenna is in
Ravenna sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ravenna's own centroid rather than borrowed from Portage County.
What Grows in Ravenna
Every plant below cleared Ravenna's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ravenna?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Ravenna
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Ravenna, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ravenna
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ravenna. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RAVENNA CITY SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- OHIO BELL TELEPHONE CO. L41307Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- RAVENNA ALUMINUM INDUSTRIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- RAVENNA ALUMINUM INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 900 ft
- CIRCLE K #5364Brownfields · 1000 ft
- CIRCLE K #5364Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SOMMERS PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WALGREENS #10784Brownfields · 1500 ft
- (ORPHAN) VACANT COMMERCIAL SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- REED MEMORIAL ANNEX BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CITY OF RAVENNAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BP OIL CO. #05726Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ravenna'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 Ravenna.
Total Sites
573
within ~10 miles of Ravenna
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ravenna
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ravenna
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ravenna, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ravenna — Toxics Release Inventory (67 sites) and Superfund (10 sites). 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.
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 Ravenna
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 Ravenna average
Your land is one point inside Ravenna
Everything above resolves to Ravenna as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Ravenna Average
Ravenna Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ravenna
- ●One soil character for all of Ravenna
- ●Frost dates read at Ravenna's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ravenna's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ravenna
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ravenna, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ravenna averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ravenna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ravenna average
How we know this about Ravenna
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 Ravenna’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 Ravenna
When does frost risk typically end in Ravenna?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ravenna typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Ravenna?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ravenna 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 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ravenna?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ravenna sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 21, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ravenna?
The federal record around Ravenna is a meaningful one — 573 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (258), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ravenna?
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 Ravenna's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ravenna'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 Ravenna’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ravenna's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,605 acres it covers and 573 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ravenna's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ravenna's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 4 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 573 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ravenna, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ravenna's boundary and the 3,605 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ravenna's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ravennalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ravenna's 3,605 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Portage County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Portage 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 Portage County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ravenna's 3,605 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ravenna you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,605 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ravenna-wide figureread your own land →