Last Frost Date: When Is It Time To Plant A Garden In Ohio?

OHIO — Inflation, the rising cost of food and the nutritional benefits of homegrown produce have cultivated a new crop of home gardeners in Ohio.

To help gardeners around the Buckeye State, the Old Farmer's Almanac tracks the average date of the final spring freeze in major cities.

The "final spring freeze" represents the average date of the final “light freeze,” which occurs when the temperature dips between 29 and 32 degrees Fahrenheit. At that temperature, tender plants can be killed.

A “moderate freeze,” between 25 and 28 degrees, is destructive to most plants; and a “severe freeze,” at anything under 24 degrees, can do heavy damage to most garden plants, according to the almanac.

Here's the average day of the final spring freeze in major Ohio cities:

• Cleveland — April 13
• Columbus — April 29
• Cincinnati — April 23
• Toledo — April 23
• Dayton — April 17
• Youngstown — May 8

Here's when you should start various crops in your gardens:

Carrots

• Dayton residents — March 12-27
• Youngstown residents — April 3-17
• Toledo residents — March 19 - April 2
• Cincinnati residents — March 19 - April 2
• Columbus residents — March 25 - April 8
• Cleveland residents — March 8-23

Corn

• Dayton residents — April 17 - May 1
• Youngstown residents — May 8-22
• Toledo residents — April 23 - May 7
• Cincinnati residents — April 23 - May 7
• Columbus residents — April 29 - May 3
• Cleveland residents — April 13-27

Green beans

• Dayton residents — April 24 - May 15
• Youngstown residents — May 15 - June 5
• Toledo residents — March 25 - April 8
• Cincinnati residents — April 30 - May 21
• Columbus residents — May 6-27
• Cleveland residents — April 20 - May 11

Onions

• Cleveland residents — March 16 - April 6
• Columbus residents — April 1-22
• Cincinnati residents — March 26 - April 16
• Toledo residents — March 26 - April 16
• Youngstown residents — April 10 - May 1
• Dayton residents — March 20 - April 3

Spinach

• Dayton residents — March 5-27
• Youngstown residents — March 27 - April 17
• Toledo residents — March 11 - April 2
• Cincinnati residents — March 11 - April 2
• Columbus residents — March 18 - April 8
• Cleveland residents — March 1-23

Even before the pandemic, mental health experts pointed to gardening as a way to deal with stress.

Gardening provides physical exercise and promotes healthier eating, but it can also reduce worry among people who consider themselves perfectionists, psychologist Seth Gillihan said.

“Given the lack of control we have, gardening can be a good antidote for perfectionism,” Gillihan wrote in a 2019 Psychology Today blog. “No matter how carefully you plan and execute your garden, there are countless factors you can't predict — invasions by bugs, inclement weather, hungry rodents.”

With so many things out of their control, perfectionism is a waste of time, he said, so gardeners may ask themselves “why bother” trying to be perfect.