Vermilion, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vermilion, 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 Vermilion 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 Vermilion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vermilion — the short answer
Vermilion, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Vermilion's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vermilion's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vermilion
Each reading below is measured for Vermilion itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVermilion runs about 236 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
MeasuredVermilion 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 Vermilion is in
Vermilion sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vermilion's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lorain County is mostly Erie Drift Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Vermilion
Every plant below cleared Vermilion's own zone 6b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vermilion?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Vermilion
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Vermilion, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Vermilion
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vermilion. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 900 SUNNYSIDE RDBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- EIGHTEEN WHEELERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- QUICK MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- VALLEY HARBOR MARINABrownfields · 1.6 mi
- LIBERTY FORD LINCOLN MERCURY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- GIANT EAGLE STORE #1238Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- CLARK #46Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CLARK REFINING & MARKETING INC NO 1571 *Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- FORMER PENSKE TRUCK LEASING CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HERK EXCAVATING, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MARY KONIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- PAT O'BRIAN CHEVROLETBrownfields · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vermilion'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 Vermilion.
Total Sites
430
within ~10 miles of Vermilion
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vermilion
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vermilion
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vermilion, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Vermilion — PFAS (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (29 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Vermilion
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 Vermilion average
Your land is one point inside Vermilion
Everything above resolves to Vermilion as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 city 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 Vermilion Average
Vermilion Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Vermilion
- ●One soil character for all of Vermilion
- ●Frost dates read at Vermilion's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vermilion's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vermilion
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vermilion, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vermilion averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vermilion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vermilion average
How we know this about Vermilion
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Vermilion’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Vermilion
When does frost risk typically end in Vermilion?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vermilion typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Vermilion?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vermilion typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vermilion?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vermilion sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Nov 7, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vermilion?
The federal record around Vermilion is a meaningful one — 430 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (255), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Vermilion?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vermilion's scale — its 6b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vermilion'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 Vermilion’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Vermilion's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,785 acres it covers and 430 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vermilion's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vermilion's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 21 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 430 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vermilion, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vermilion's boundary and the 6,785 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Vermilion sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Vermilionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vermilion's 6,785 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lorain County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lorain 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 Lorain County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vermilion's 6,785 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vermilion you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,785 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Vermilion-wide figureread your own land →
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