Alford, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alford, 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 Alford 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 Alford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alford — the short answer
Alford, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 192 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 192 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 Alford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alford's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alford
Each reading below is measured for Alford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlford runs about 223 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
MeasuredAlford 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 Alford is in
Alford sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Alford
Every plant below cleared Alford's own zone 6b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alford?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Alford
Survey cells within 31 miles of Alford checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 126 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Alford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PANTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MAIN STREET GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- KHW FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- KINMANS 76 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PETERSBURG FIRE DEPARTTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Fast Max 172Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DAY OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- SOLAR SOURCES INC CARBONDALE MINEToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- Frontier CommunicationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Petersburg FertilizerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- JOHNS SUNOCOBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- JOHNS SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alford'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 Alford.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Alford
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alford, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Alford. 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 Alford
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 Alford average
Your land is one point inside Alford
Everything above resolves to Alford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 192 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 Alford Average
Alford Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Alford
- ●One soil character for all of Alford
- ●Frost dates read at Alford's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alford's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alford, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alford average
How we know this about Alford
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 Alford’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 Alford
When does frost risk typically end in Alford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alford typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Alford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alford typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alford sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 23, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alford?
The federal record around Alford shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles 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 Alford?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alford's scale — its 6b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alford'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 Alford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Alford's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 192 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 6 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alford's boundary and the 192 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alford's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Alford checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alford's 192 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike County
- The growing challenges every Indiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Indiana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alford's 192 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 192 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Alford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaAlford sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides