Summerside, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Summerside, 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 Summerside 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 Summerside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Summerside — the short answer
Summerside, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- 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 Summerside's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Summerside's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Summerside
Each reading below is measured for Summerside itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSummerside runs about 224 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
MeasuredSummerside 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 Summerside is in
Summerside sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Summerside's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clermont County.
What Grows in Summerside
Every plant below cleared Summerside's own zone 6b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Summerside?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Summerside
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Summerside, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Summerside
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Summerside. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRENTEC INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- VIVI-COLOR INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- HILLTOP ONE STOP LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- COLLISIONRIGHT DBA WOODS COLLISION CENTERBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SPEEDWAY 5098Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- GERBER COLLISION & GLASSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- SEARS ROEBUCK AND CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CARSTAR COLLISION CARE OF EASTGATEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- WAWA #7210Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- EASTGATE ACURA ISUZU, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- UNION TWP FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- J. C. PENNEY CO., INC. #1899-4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Summerside'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 Summerside.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Summerside
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Summerside
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Summerside, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 103 sites within ~10 miles of Summerside. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Summerside
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 Summerside average
Your land is one point inside Summerside
Everything above resolves to Summerside 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 Summerside Average
Summerside Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Summerside
- ●One soil character for all of Summerside
- ●Frost dates read at Summerside's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Summerside's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Summerside
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Summerside, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Summerside averages can't show:
We read public map data around Summerside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Summerside average
How we know this about Summerside
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 Summerside’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 Summerside
When does frost risk typically end in Summerside?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Summerside typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Summerside?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Summerside typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Summerside?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Summerside sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 28, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Summerside?
The federal record around Summerside is a meaningful one — 1,195 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (689), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Summerside?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Summerside's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Summerside'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 Summerside’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Summerside's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,321 acres it covers and 1,195 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Summerside's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Summerside's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 11 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,195 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Summerside, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Summerside's boundary and the 1,321 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Summerside's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Summersidelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Summerside's 1,321 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clermont County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clermont 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 Clermont County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Summerside's 1,321 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Summerside you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,321 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Summerside-wide figureread your own land →
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