Wickliffe, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wickliffe, 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 Wickliffe 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 Wickliffe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wickliffe — the short answer
Wickliffe, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- 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 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Wickliffe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wickliffe's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wickliffe
Each reading below is measured for Wickliffe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWickliffe runs about 234 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
MeasuredWickliffe 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 Wickliffe is in
Wickliffe sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wickliffe's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Wickliffe
Every plant below cleared Wickliffe's own zone 6b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wickliffe?
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 21 — 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 Wickliffe
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Wickliffe, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wickliffe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wickliffe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #7884Brownfields · 1300 ft
- ELSAG BAILEY INCToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- ELSAG BAILEY INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- LINCOLN SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SPEEDWAY SUPERAMERICA LLC NO 3027Brownfields · 2100 ft
- WICKLIFFE CITY SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SPEEDWAY #3027Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PCC AIRFOILS LLC SMP INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- PCC AIRFOILS LLC SMP INCToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- ENBRIDGE GAS OHIOBrownfields · 2300 ft
- WICKLIFFE CITY SCHOOLSBrownfields · 2300 ft
- PENSKE TRUCK LEASING CO LPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wickliffe'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 Wickliffe.
Total Sites
1,544
within ~10 miles of Wickliffe
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wickliffe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wickliffe
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wickliffe, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 159 sites within ~10 miles of Wickliffe. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Wickliffe
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 Wickliffe average
Your land is one point inside Wickliffe
Everything above resolves to Wickliffe as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Wickliffe Average
Wickliffe Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wickliffe
- ●One soil character for all of Wickliffe
- ●Frost dates read at Wickliffe's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wickliffe's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wickliffe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wickliffe, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wickliffe averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wickliffe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wickliffe average
How we know this about Wickliffe
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 Wickliffe’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 Wickliffe
When does frost risk typically end in Wickliffe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wickliffe 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 Wickliffe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wickliffe 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 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wickliffe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wickliffe sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Nov 7, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wickliffe?
The federal record around Wickliffe is a meaningful one — 1,544 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (735), 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 Wickliffe?
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 Wickliffe's scale — its 6b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wickliffe'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 Wickliffe’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wickliffe's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,950 acres it covers and 1,544 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wickliffe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wickliffe's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 21 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,544 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wickliffe, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wickliffe's boundary and the 2,950 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wickliffe's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wickliffelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wickliffe's 2,950 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wickliffe's 2,950 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wickliffe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,950 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 Wickliffe-wide figureread your own land →