Stony Prairie, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Stony Prairie, 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 Stony Prairie 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 Stony Prairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Stony Prairie — the short answer
Stony Prairie, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Stony Prairie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stony Prairie's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stony Prairie
Each reading below is measured for Stony Prairie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStony Prairie 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
MeasuredStony Prairie 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 Stony Prairie is in
Stony Prairie sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Stony Prairie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sandusky County.
What Grows in Stony Prairie
Every plant below cleared Stony Prairie'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 Stony Prairie?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Stony Prairie
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Stony Prairie, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stony Prairie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stony Prairie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A. NICKLES BAKERY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- IMPERIAL PLATING COBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MOSSER CONSTRUCTION INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- IAC FREMONT LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- BUCKEYE AUTO PARTS INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- PROGRESSIVE IRON & METALBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- TRIPLE J TOWING & RECOVERY LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- TROY OVERMYERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WEST END MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 073 Fremont SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SUNRISE COOPERATIVE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BP OIL SITE 06572Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stony Prairie'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 Stony Prairie.
Total Sites
346
within ~10 miles of Stony Prairie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stony Prairie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stony Prairie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stony Prairie, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Stony Prairie — Superfund (8 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (29 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Stony Prairie
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 Stony Prairie average
Your land is one point inside Stony Prairie
Everything above resolves to Stony Prairie as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Stony Prairie Average
Stony Prairie Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Stony Prairie
- ●One soil character for all of Stony Prairie
- ●Frost dates read at Stony Prairie's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stony Prairie's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stony Prairie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stony Prairie, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stony Prairie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stony Prairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stony Prairie average
How we know this about Stony Prairie
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 Stony Prairie’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 Stony Prairie
When does frost risk typically end in Stony Prairie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stony Prairie typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Stony Prairie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stony Prairie typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stony Prairie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stony Prairie sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 20, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stony Prairie?
The federal record around Stony Prairie is a meaningful one — 346 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (134), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Stony Prairie?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stony Prairie's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stony Prairie'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 Stony Prairie’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stony Prairie's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,027 acres it covers and 346 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stony Prairie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stony Prairie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 3 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 346 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stony Prairie, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stony Prairie's boundary and the 1,027 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 Stony Prairie's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Stony Prairielydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stony Prairie's 1,027 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sandusky County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sandusky 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 Sandusky County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stony Prairie's 1,027 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stony Prairie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,027 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Stony Prairie-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioStony Prairie sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides