Xenia, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Xenia, 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 Xenia 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 Xenia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Xenia — the short answer
Xenia, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Xenia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Xenia's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Xenia
Each reading below is measured for Xenia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredXenia runs about 214 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
MeasuredXenia 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 Xenia is in
Xenia sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Xenia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greene County.
What Grows in Xenia
Every plant below cleared Xenia's own zone 6b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Xenia?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Xenia
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from Xenia, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Xenia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Xenia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALGREENS #12703Brownfields · 450 ft
- TRUE NORTH # 712Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- XENIA MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- STAN'S BAR & GRILL INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 3404Brownfields · 700 ft
- FORMER CAPITOL CLEANERS - XENIASuperfund · 750 ft
- LUTHER WELCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- XENIA LAUNDROMATBrownfields · 900 ft
- SUNRISE COOPERATIVEBrownfields · 950 ft
- CLARK OIL SERVICE STATION #2006Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BUCKEYE COUNTRYMARK, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CALIBER COLLISION CENTER - XENIA 2629Brownfields · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Xenia'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 Xenia.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Xenia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Xenia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Xenia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Xenia — PFAS (11 sites) and Superfund (9 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Xenia
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 Xenia average
Your land is one point inside Xenia
Everything above resolves to Xenia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Xenia Average
Xenia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Xenia
- ●One soil character for all of Xenia
- ●Frost dates read at Xenia's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Xenia's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Xenia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Xenia, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Xenia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Xenia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Xenia average
How we know this about Xenia
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 Xenia’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 Xenia
When does frost risk typically end in Xenia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Xenia typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Xenia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Xenia typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Xenia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Xenia sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 21, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Xenia?
The federal record around Xenia is a meaningful one — 484 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (213), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Xenia?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Xenia's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Xenia'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 Xenia’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Xenia's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,360 acres it covers and 484 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Xenia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Xenia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 4 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 484 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Xenia, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Xenia's boundary and the 8,360 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Xenia's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Xenialydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Xenia's 8,360 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greene County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greene 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 Greene County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Xenia's 8,360 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Xenia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,360 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Xenia-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioXenia sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides