Solon, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Solon, 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 Solon 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 Solon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Solon — the short answer
Solon, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of city.
- 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 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 13K 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 Solon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Solon's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Solon
Each reading below is measured for Solon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSolon runs about 215 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
MeasuredSolon 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 Solon is in
Solon sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Solon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cuyahoga County.
What Grows in Solon
Every plant below cleared Solon's own zone 6a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Solon?
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 13 — 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 Solon
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Solon, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Solon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Solon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GEAUGA LAKE ROAD DUMPSuperfund · 450 ft
- LUBE STOP #11Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MARATHON #3179Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CONRAD'S TIRE SERVICE, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- B&I AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SUN CO., INC. #0001-6931Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FORMER SOLON POLICE DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 3359Brownfields · 800 ft
- CUMBERLAND GULF #123862Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- K MART #3373Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BP AMOCO CO 22430Brownfields · 1000 ft
- 7-ELEVEN STORE #36232Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Solon'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 Solon.
Total Sites
1,681
within ~10 miles of Solon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Solon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Solon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Solon, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 213 sites within ~10 miles of Solon. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Solon
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 Solon average
Your land is one point inside Solon
Everything above resolves to Solon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 13K 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 Solon Average
Solon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Solon
- ●One soil character for all of Solon
- ●Frost dates read at Solon's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Solon's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Solon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Solon, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Solon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Solon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Solon average
How we know this about Solon
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 Solon’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 Solon
When does frost risk typically end in Solon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Solon 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 Solon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Solon typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Solon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Solon sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 30, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Solon?
The federal record around Solon is a meaningful one — 1,681 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (744), the nearest Superfund 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 Solon?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Solon's scale — its 6a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Solon'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 Solon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Solon's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 13,001 acres it covers and 1,681 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Solon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Solon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 13 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,681 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Solon, the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Solon's boundary and the 13,001 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Solon's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Solonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Solon's 13,001 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 Solon's 13,001 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Solon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,001 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Solon-wide figureread your own land →