Stafford, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Stafford, 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 Stafford 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 Stafford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stafford — the short answer
Stafford, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 218 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 218 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 Stafford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stafford's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stafford
Each reading below is measured for Stafford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStafford 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
MeasuredStafford 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 Stafford is in
Stafford sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Stafford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Stafford
Every plant below cleared Stafford's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stafford?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Stafford
Survey cells within 31 miles of Stafford checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 38 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stafford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stafford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SARAHS COUNTRY KITCHENUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- ELK RUN COMPRESSOR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- BERNE PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 4.0 mi
- LEWISVILLE CARRYOUT LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- REEDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- TEXAS EASTERN TRANSMISSION LP - BERNE (0656000032)Brownfields · 4.2 mi
- TETLP - VALVE LN 25 MP 677.3 PIG TRAP NOBLE COUNTYBrownfields · 6.1 mi
- R & J DIESELUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- GARY RUBLE LLCBrownfields · 6.2 mi
- NGL HILLSTONE YARDBrownfields · 6.3 mi
- PARKS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- JEFF & CARLA LAIPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stafford'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 Stafford.
Total Sites
48
within ~10 miles of Stafford
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stafford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stafford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stafford, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Stafford. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Stafford
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 Stafford average
Your land is one point inside Stafford
Everything above resolves to Stafford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 218 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 Stafford Average
Stafford Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Stafford
- ●One soil character for all of Stafford
- ●Frost dates read at Stafford's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stafford's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stafford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stafford, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stafford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stafford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stafford average
How we know this about Stafford
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 Stafford’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 Stafford
When does frost risk typically end in Stafford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stafford typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Stafford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stafford typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stafford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stafford sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 17, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stafford?
The federal record around Stafford is light — 48 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Stafford?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stafford's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stafford'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 Stafford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stafford's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 218 acres it covers and 48 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stafford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stafford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 31 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 48 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stafford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stafford's boundary and the 218 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stafford's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Stafford 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 Stafford's 218 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stafford's 218 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stafford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 218 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 Stafford-wide figureread your own land →