Somerset, 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.
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 Somerset, 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 Somerset 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 Somerset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Somerset — the short answer
Somerset, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 746 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- 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
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 746 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 Somerset's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Somerset's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Somerset
Each reading below is measured for Somerset itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSomerset runs about 208 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
MeasuredSomerset 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 Somerset is in
Somerset sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Somerset's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Perry County is mostly Western Allegheny Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Somerset
Every plant below cleared Somerset's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Somerset?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Somerset
Spotted lanternfly documented 26 miles from Somerset, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Somerset
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Somerset. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MICHAEL J. FLAUTTUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- SOMERSET DUKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CERTIFIED OIL CO. #195Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- ODOT DISTRICT 5 RIGHT OF WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SOMERSET CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8080Brownfields · 2100 ft
- GIT 'N' GO DRIVE THRUUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- READING TOWNSHIP TRUSTEESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NORTHERN PERRY CO.WATER #2PFAS · 1.1 mi
- TEXAS EASTERN TRANSMISSIONS L.P. - SOMERSET (0664000100)Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- PREMIER SCAFFOLD SOLUTIONSBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- JIM ROBINSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Somerset'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 Somerset.
Total Sites
126
within ~10 miles of Somerset
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Somerset
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Somerset
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Somerset, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Somerset — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Somerset
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 Somerset average
Your land is one point inside Somerset
Everything above resolves to Somerset as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 746 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 Somerset Average
Somerset Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Somerset
- ●One soil character for all of Somerset
- ●Frost dates read at Somerset's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Somerset's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Somerset
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Somerset, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Somerset averages can't show:
We read public map data around Somerset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Somerset average
How we know this about Somerset
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 Somerset’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 Somerset
When does frost risk typically end in Somerset?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Somerset typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Somerset?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Somerset 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 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Somerset?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Somerset sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 19, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Somerset?
The federal record around Somerset is a meaningful one — 126 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), 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 Somerset?
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 Somerset's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Somerset'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 Somerset’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Somerset's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 746 acres it covers and 126 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Somerset's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Somerset's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 2 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 126 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Somerset, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Somerset's boundary and the 746 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Somerset sits in the Erie Drift Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Somersetlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Somerset's 746 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perry 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 Perry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Somerset's 746 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Somerset you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 746 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 Somerset-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Growing region
Nearby growing guides