Shadyside, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Shadyside, 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 Shadyside 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 Shadyside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shadyside — the short answer
Shadyside, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 646 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 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 646 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 Shadyside's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shadyside's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shadyside
Each reading below is measured for Shadyside itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShadyside runs about 217 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
MeasuredShadyside 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 Shadyside is in
Shadyside sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shadyside's own centroid rather than borrowed from Belmont County.
What Grows in Shadyside
Every plant below cleared Shadyside's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shadyside?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 8 — 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 Shadyside
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Shadyside, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Shadyside
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shadyside. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TIP TOP CLEANERSBrownfields · 75 ft
- SHADYSIDE PENNZOILUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- SUNOCO SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 450 ft
- SHADYSIDE CFMUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- SHADYSIDE TOWING & REPAIR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- SHADYSIDE LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SHADYSIDE LOCAL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- NEWHART'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1600 ft
- ST MARY CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BELMONT STAMPING COBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BOND'S HONDA SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- GATORS PIT STOP & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shadyside'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 Shadyside.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shadyside
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shadyside
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shadyside, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Shadyside. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Shadyside
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 Shadyside average
Your land is one point inside Shadyside
Everything above resolves to Shadyside as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 646 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 Shadyside Average
Shadyside Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Shadyside
- ●One soil character for all of Shadyside
- ●Frost dates read at Shadyside's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shadyside's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shadyside
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shadyside, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shadyside averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shadyside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shadyside average
How we know this about Shadyside
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 Shadyside’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 Shadyside
When does frost risk typically end in Shadyside?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shadyside 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 Shadyside?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shadyside typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shadyside?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shadyside sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 25, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shadyside?
The federal record around Shadyside is a meaningful one — 644 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (361), the nearest Brownfields 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 Shadyside?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shadyside's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shadyside'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 Shadyside’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Shadyside's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 646 acres it covers and 644 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shadyside's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shadyside's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 8 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 644 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shadyside, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shadyside's boundary and the 646 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shadyside's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Shadysidelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shadyside's 646 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Belmont County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Belmont 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 Belmont County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shadyside's 646 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shadyside you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 646 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Shadyside-wide figureread your own land →
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