Ashley, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ashley, 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 Ashley 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 Ashley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ashley — the short answer
Ashley, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6a is Ashley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ashley's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ashley
Each reading below is measured for Ashley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAshley runs about 197 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
MeasuredAshley sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Ashley is in
Ashley sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ashley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: DeKalb County is mostly Eastern Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ashley
Every plant below cleared Ashley's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ashley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Ashley
Spotted lanternfly documented 31 miles from Ashley, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ashley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ashley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOSTWICK BRAUN COMPANYBrownfields · 500 ft
- TRIN INCToxics Release Inventory · 650 ft
- WILFORDS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BUNDY CORP ASHLEYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Bostwick Braun CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Ashley DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DE KALB COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Ashley Industrial Molding IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ASHLEY INDUSTRIAL MOLDING INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 2300 ft
- ASHLEY INDUSTRIAL MOLDING INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- RICHARD G ELWORTHYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ASHLEY MARATHON EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ashley'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 Ashley.
Total Sites
211
within ~10 miles of Ashley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
37 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ashley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ashley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ashley, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 37 sites within ~10 miles of Ashley. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ashley
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 Ashley average
Your land is one point inside Ashley
Everything above resolves to Ashley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Ashley Average
Ashley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ashley
- ●One soil character for all of Ashley
- ●Frost dates read at Ashley's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ashley's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ashley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ashley, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ashley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ashley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ashley average
How we know this about Ashley
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 Ashley’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 Ashley
When does frost risk typically end in Ashley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ashley typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Ashley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ashley typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ashley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ashley sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 14, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ashley?
The federal record around Ashley is a meaningful one — 211 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), 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 Ashley?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ashley's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ashley'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 Ashley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ashley's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,219 acres it covers and 211 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ashley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ashley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 28 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 211 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ashley, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ashley's boundary and the 1,219 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ashley sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ashleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ashley's 1,219 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DeKalb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DeKalb 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 DeKalb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ashley's 1,219 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ashley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,219 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 Ashley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaAshley sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides