Willoughby Hills, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Willoughby Hills, 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 Willoughby Hills 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 Willoughby Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Willoughby Hills — the short answer
Willoughby Hills, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- 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 Willoughby Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Willoughby Hills's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Willoughby Hills
Each reading below is measured for Willoughby Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilloughby Hills 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
MeasuredWilloughby Hills 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 Willoughby Hills is in
Willoughby Hills sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Willoughby Hills's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lake County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Willoughby Hills
Every plant below cleared Willoughby Hills'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 Willoughby Hills?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Willoughby Hills
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Willoughby Hills, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Willoughby Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Willoughby Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ED & DICK'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CITY OF WILLOUGHBY HILLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TRUE NORTH # 372Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- GALES WILLOUGHBY HILLS GARDEN CEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MANAKIKI GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NORTH CHAGRIN RESERVATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CLEVELAND CLINIC WILLOUGHBY HILLSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- AM / PM # 2405Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE #36229Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BP OIL CO NO 4982Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- SHEETZ #693Brownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Willoughby Hills'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 Willoughby Hills.
Total Sites
1,576
within ~10 miles of Willoughby Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
14 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Willoughby Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Willoughby Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Willoughby Hills, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 163 sites within ~10 miles of Willoughby Hills. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Willoughby Hills
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 Willoughby Hills average
Your land is one point inside Willoughby Hills
Everything above resolves to Willoughby Hills 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 Willoughby Hills Average
Willoughby Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Willoughby Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Willoughby Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Willoughby Hills's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Willoughby Hills's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Willoughby Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Willoughby Hills, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Willoughby Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Willoughby Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Willoughby Hills average
How we know this about Willoughby Hills
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 Willoughby Hills’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 Willoughby Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Willoughby Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Willoughby Hills typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Willoughby Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Willoughby Hills typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Willoughby Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Willoughby Hills sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Nov 4, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Willoughby Hills?
The federal record around Willoughby Hills is a meaningful one — 1,576 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (739), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Willoughby Hills?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Willoughby Hills's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Willoughby Hills'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 Willoughby Hills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Willoughby Hills's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,887 acres it covers and 1,576 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Willoughby Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Willoughby Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 18 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,576 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Willoughby Hills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Willoughby Hills's boundary and the 6,887 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Willoughby Hills sits in the Erie Drift Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Willoughby Hillslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Willoughby Hills's 6,887 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 Willoughby Hills's 6,887 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Willoughby Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,887 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Willoughby Hills-wide figureread your own land →