Barbee, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Barbee, 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 Barbee 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 Barbee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Barbee — the short answer
Barbee, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 687 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 687 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 Barbee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barbee's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barbee
Each reading below is measured for Barbee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBarbee runs about 201 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
MeasuredBarbee 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 Barbee is in
Barbee sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Barbee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kosciusko County.
What Grows in Barbee
Every plant below cleared Barbee's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barbee?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Barbee
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Barbee, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Barbee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barbee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IRISH LAKE BOAT WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PIC A SPOT CAMPGROUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- INDIANA CABINET COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Wabash Valley Produce IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Lassus Handy Dandy 40Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PONDEROSA CAMPGROUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Freedom Express 4Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- CHAIN OF LAKES MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- RST PROPERTIES INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 6503Brownfields · 2.3 mi
- PAULUS PUMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- JACKSON OIL AND SOLVENTSToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barbee'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 Barbee.
Total Sites
396
within ~10 miles of Barbee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barbee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barbee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barbee, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 53 sites within ~10 miles of Barbee. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Barbee
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 Barbee average
Your land is one point inside Barbee
Everything above resolves to Barbee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 687 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 Barbee Average
Barbee Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Barbee
- ●One soil character for all of Barbee
- ●Frost dates read at Barbee's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barbee's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barbee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barbee, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barbee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barbee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barbee average
How we know this about Barbee
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 Barbee’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 Barbee
When does frost risk typically end in Barbee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barbee typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Barbee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barbee typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barbee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barbee sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 16, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barbee?
The federal record around Barbee is a meaningful one — 396 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (229), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles 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 Barbee?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barbee's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barbee'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 Barbee’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Barbee's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 687 acres it covers and 396 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barbee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barbee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 30 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 396 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barbee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barbee's boundary and the 687 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Barbee's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Barbeelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Barbee's 687 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kosciusko County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kosciusko 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 Kosciusko County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barbee's 687 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barbee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 687 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Barbee-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaBarbee sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides