Worthington, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Worthington, 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 Worthington 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 Worthington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Worthington — the short answer
Worthington, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Worthington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Worthington's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Worthington
Each reading below is measured for Worthington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWorthington runs about 213 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
MeasuredWorthington 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 Worthington is in
Worthington sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Worthington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Worthington
Every plant below cleared Worthington's own zone 6b and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Worthington?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Worthington
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Worthington, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Worthington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Worthington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KROGER STORE 879Brownfields · 800 ft
- SHELL OIL CO. #23491770246Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- THE CASTLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- OHIO BELL TELEPHONE CO. L32117Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WORTHINGTON DIVISION OF POLICEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- SPRINT LUBEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- SPRINT LUBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #3407Brownfields · 1600 ft
- MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BP OIL CO. #08172Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- UNITED DAIRY FARMERS #662Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- WORTHINGTON CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Worthington'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 Worthington.
Total Sites
2,251
within ~10 miles of Worthington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
14 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Worthington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Worthington
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Worthington
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 Worthington average
Your land is one point inside Worthington
Everything above resolves to Worthington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Worthington Average
Worthington Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Worthington
- ●One soil character for all of Worthington
- ●Frost dates read at Worthington's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Worthington's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Worthington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Worthington, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Worthington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Worthington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Worthington average
How we know this about Worthington
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 Worthington’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 Worthington
When does frost risk typically end in Worthington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Worthington typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Worthington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Worthington typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Worthington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Worthington sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 22, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Worthington?
The federal record around Worthington is a meaningful one — 2,251 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,171), 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 Worthington?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Worthington's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Worthington'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 Worthington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Worthington's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,503 acres it covers and 2,251 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Worthington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Worthington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 5 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,251 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Worthington, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Worthington's boundary and the 3,503 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Worthington's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Worthingtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Worthington's 3,503 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Worthington's 3,503 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Worthington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,503 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 Worthington-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioWorthington sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides