Wellington, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Wellington, 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 Wellington 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 Wellington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wellington — the short answer
Wellington, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Wellington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wellington's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wellington
Each reading below is measured for Wellington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWellington runs about 210 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
MeasuredWellington 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 Wellington is in
Wellington sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wellington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lorain County.
What Grows in Wellington
Every plant below cleared Wellington's own zone 6a and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wellington?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Wellington
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Wellington, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wellington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wellington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #7012Brownfields · 2300 ft
- WELLINGTON MICKEY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- LESCO INC. WELLINGTON PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- WELLINGTON MICKEY MARTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- WADE KNAPP ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PENFIELD GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VACANT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LENT AUTO SERVICE, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KRYSTOWSKI TRACTOR, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MARIE BOTSFORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- STERLING FOUNDRY, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- FOREST CITY TECHNOLOGIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wellington'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 Wellington.
Total Sites
150
within ~10 miles of Wellington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wellington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wellington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wellington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wellington — Superfund (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Wellington
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 Wellington average
Your land is one point inside Wellington
Everything above resolves to Wellington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Wellington Average
Wellington Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Wellington
- ●One soil character for all of Wellington
- ●Frost dates read at Wellington's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wellington's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wellington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wellington, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wellington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wellington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wellington average
How we know this about Wellington
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 Wellington’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 Wellington
When does frost risk typically end in Wellington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wellington typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Wellington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wellington typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wellington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wellington sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 24, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wellington?
The federal record around Wellington is a meaningful one — 150 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), the nearest Brownfields 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 Wellington?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wellington's scale — its 6a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wellington'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 Wellington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wellington's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,332 acres it covers and 150 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wellington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wellington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 7 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 150 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wellington, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wellington's boundary and the 2,332 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wellington's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wellingtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wellington's 2,332 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 Wellington's 2,332 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wellington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,332 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Wellington-wide figureread your own land →
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