Zaleski, 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, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Zaleski, 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 Zaleski 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 Zaleski — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Zaleski — the short answer
Zaleski, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 259 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 259 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 Zaleski's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Zaleski's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Zaleski
Each reading below is measured for Zaleski itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredZaleski runs about 193 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredZaleski 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 Zaleski is in
Zaleski sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Zaleski's own centroid rather than borrowed from Vinton County.
What Grows in Zaleski
Every plant below cleared Zaleski's own zone 6b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Zaleski?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Zaleski
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Zaleski. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ODNR ZALESKI STATE FORESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- LAMB'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ZALESKI ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ZALESKI GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ODNR LAKE HOPE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ZALESKI STATE FORESTBrownfields · 650 ft
- V-30Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- WATERS EDGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- V-47Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- AUSTIN POWDER EMULSIONBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- AUSTIN POWDER EMULSIONToxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- AUSTIN POWDER COToxics Release Inventory · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Zaleski'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 Zaleski.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Zaleski
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Zaleski
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Zaleski
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Zaleski, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Zaleski. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Zaleski
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 Zaleski average
Your land is one point inside Zaleski
Everything above resolves to Zaleski as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 259 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 Zaleski Average
Zaleski Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Zaleski
- ●One soil character for all of Zaleski
- ●Frost dates read at Zaleski's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Zaleski's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Zaleski
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Zaleski, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Zaleski averages can't show:
We read public map data around Zaleski — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Zaleski average
How we know this about Zaleski
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 Zaleski’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 Zaleski
When does frost risk typically end in Zaleski?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Zaleski typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Zaleski?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Zaleski typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Zaleski?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Zaleski sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 9, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Zaleski?
The federal record around Zaleski shows 103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Zaleski?
From about Sep 23 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 Oct 23 (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 Oct 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Zaleski's scale — its 6b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Zaleski'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 Zaleski’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Zaleski's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 259 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Zaleski's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Zaleski's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 23 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Zaleski, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Zaleski's boundary and the 259 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Zaleski's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Zaleski's 259 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vinton 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 Vinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Zaleski's 259 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Zaleski you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 259 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Zaleski-wide figureread your own land →
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