Sidney, 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.
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 Sidney, 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 Sidney 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 Sidney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sidney — the short answer
Sidney, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Sidney's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sidney's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sidney
Each reading below is measured for Sidney itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSidney runs about 194 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSidney 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 Sidney is in
Sidney sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sidney's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shelby County.
What Grows in Sidney
Every plant below cleared Sidney's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sidney?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Sidney
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Sidney, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sidney
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sidney. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILSON MEMORIAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 850 ft
- CVS PHARMACYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MONARCH LATHES, L.P.Toxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- MONARCH LATHES LPBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #6179Brownfields · 1800 ft
- WALGREENS #7941Brownfields · 1900 ft
- STARVIN MARVIN 1261Brownfields · 1900 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #1612Brownfields · 1900 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #1920Brownfields · 1900 ft
- KROGER #913Brownfields · 2000 ft
- ROSS ALUMINUM CASTINGS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #1331Brownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sidney'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 Sidney.
Total Sites
331
within ~10 miles of Sidney
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sidney
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sidney
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sidney, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sidney — Toxics Release Inventory (44 sites) and PFAS (3 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Sidney
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 Sidney average
Your land is one point inside Sidney
Everything above resolves to Sidney as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Sidney Average
Sidney Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Sidney
- ●One soil character for all of Sidney
- ●Frost dates read at Sidney's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sidney's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sidney
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sidney, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sidney averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sidney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sidney average
How we know this about Sidney
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 Sidney’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 Sidney
When does frost risk typically end in Sidney?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sidney typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Sidney?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sidney typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sidney?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sidney sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 12, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sidney?
The federal record around Sidney is a meaningful one — 331 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (123), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Sidney?
From about Sep 26 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 Oct 26 (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 Oct 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sidney's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sidney'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 Sidney’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sidney's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,661 acres it covers and 331 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sidney's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sidney's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 26 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 331 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sidney, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sidney's boundary and the 7,661 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sidney's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Sidneylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sidney's 7,661 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shelby County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shelby 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 Shelby County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sidney's 7,661 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sidney you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,661 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Sidney-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioSidney sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides