Valley Hi, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Valley Hi, 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 Valley Hi 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 Valley Hi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Valley Hi — the short answer
Valley Hi, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 398 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- 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
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 398 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 Valley Hi's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valley Hi's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valley Hi
Each reading below is measured for Valley Hi itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValley Hi runs about 207 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
MeasuredValley Hi 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 Valley Hi is in
Valley Hi sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Valley Hi's own centroid rather than borrowed from Logan County.
What Grows in Valley Hi
Every plant below cleared Valley Hi's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valley Hi?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Valley Hi
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Valley Hi, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Valley Hi
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valley Hi. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAD RIVER MOUNTAINBrownfields · 1300 ft
- MADRIVER VALLEY HI LTD.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MONROE TOWNSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ARTOM'S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- TRI-VALLEY FIRE DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- DONALD B HENRYBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- OHIO HI-POINT JOINT VOCATIONALUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- OHIO HI-POINT CAREER CENTERBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- MURPHY USA # 6819Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- BELLEFONTAINE HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- ANDERSON FORD AND LINCOLN MERCURYBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #1264Brownfields · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valley Hi'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 Valley Hi.
Total Sites
151
within ~10 miles of Valley Hi
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valley Hi
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valley Hi
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valley Hi, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Valley Hi — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 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 Valley Hi
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 Valley Hi average
Your land is one point inside Valley Hi
Everything above resolves to Valley Hi as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 398 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 Valley Hi Average
Valley Hi Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Valley Hi
- ●One soil character for all of Valley Hi
- ●Frost dates read at Valley Hi's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valley Hi's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valley Hi
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valley Hi, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valley Hi averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valley Hi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valley Hi average
How we know this about Valley Hi
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 Valley Hi’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 Valley Hi
When does frost risk typically end in Valley Hi?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Hi typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Valley Hi?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Hi 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 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valley Hi?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valley Hi sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 19, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valley Hi?
The federal record around Valley Hi is a meaningful one — 151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Valley Hi?
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 Valley Hi's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valley Hi'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 Valley Hi’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Valley Hi's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 398 acres it covers and 151 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valley Hi's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valley Hi's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 2 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 151 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valley Hi, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valley Hi's boundary and the 398 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valley Hi's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Valley Hilydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valley Hi's 398 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Logan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Logan 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 Logan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valley Hi's 398 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valley Hi you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 398 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Valley Hi-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioValley Hi sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides