Rushville, 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 Rushville, 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 Rushville 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 Rushville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rushville — the short answer
Rushville, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 154 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 154 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 Rushville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rushville's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rushville
Each reading below is measured for Rushville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRushville runs about 204 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
MeasuredRushville 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 Rushville is in
Rushville sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rushville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fairfield County.
What Grows in Rushville
Every plant below cleared Rushville's own zone 6a and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rushville?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Rushville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Rushville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 32 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rushville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rushville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RUSHVILLE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- RUSHVILLE MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ABANDONED TANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FAIRFIELD UNION HIGH SCHOOL MERCURYSuperfund · 2.4 mi
- FAIRFIELD UNION LOCAL SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- UNLIMITED DIESEL PERFORMANCEBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- WESTERMAN INC BREMEN PLANT (0123000286)Toxics Release Inventory · 3.0 mi
- WESTERMAN INC BREMEN PLANT (0123000286)Brownfields · 3.0 mi
- ONE STOP CROSSING LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #13027Brownfields · 3.3 mi
- SUPERIOR GLASS FIBERS INCToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- BREMEN QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rushville'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 Rushville.
Total Sites
203
within ~10 miles of Rushville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rushville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rushville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rushville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Rushville. 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 Rushville
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 Rushville average
Your land is one point inside Rushville
Everything above resolves to Rushville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 154 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 Rushville Average
Rushville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rushville
- ●One soil character for all of Rushville
- ●Frost dates read at Rushville's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rushville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rushville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rushville, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rushville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rushville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rushville average
How we know this about Rushville
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 Rushville’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 Rushville
When does frost risk typically end in Rushville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rushville typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Rushville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rushville typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rushville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rushville sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 19, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rushville?
The federal record around Rushville is a meaningful one — 203 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (106), 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 Rushville?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rushville's scale — its 6a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rushville'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 Rushville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rushville's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 154 acres it covers and 203 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rushville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rushville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 2 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 203 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rushville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rushville's boundary and the 154 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rushville's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Rushville 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 Rushville's 154 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairfield 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 Fairfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rushville's 154 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rushville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 154 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 Rushville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioRushville sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides