Bass Lake, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bass Lake, 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 Bass Lake 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 Bass Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bass Lake — the short answer
Bass Lake, Indiana: USDA zone 5b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 5b is Bass Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bass Lake's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bass Lake
Each reading below is measured for Bass Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBass Lake 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
MeasuredBass Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Bass Lake is in
Bass Lake sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bass Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Starke County is mostly Central Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bass Lake
Every plant below cleared Bass Lake's own zone 5b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bass Lake?
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 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 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Bass Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bass Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bass Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bass Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPRINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NW-50 BASS LAKE, IND.Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- CALIFORNIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BASS LAKE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- KP KornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BASS LAKE PUB RISTORANTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WHEELER AVIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Baileys PlazaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- TRUNKLINE GAS CO - NORTH JUDSONBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- J & K DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Trunkline Gas Compressor Station CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- KNOX WATER WORKSPFAS · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bass Lake'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 Bass Lake.
Total Sites
126
within ~10 miles of Bass Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bass Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bass Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bass Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bass Lake — Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (80 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bass Lake
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 Bass Lake average
Your land is one point inside Bass Lake
Everything above resolves to Bass Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Bass Lake Average
Bass Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Bass Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Bass Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Bass Lake's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bass Lake's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bass Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bass Lake, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bass Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bass Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bass Lake average
How we know this about Bass Lake
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 Bass Lake’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 Bass Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Bass Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bass Lake 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 Bass Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bass Lake typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bass Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bass Lake sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 12, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bass Lake?
The federal record around Bass Lake shows 126 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Bass Lake?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bass Lake's scale — its 5b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bass Lake'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 Bass Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bass Lake's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,577 acres it covers and 126 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bass Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bass Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 26 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 126 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bass Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bass Lake's boundary and the 5,577 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bass Lake sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bass Lake 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 Bass Lake's 5,577 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Starke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Starke 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 Starke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bass Lake's 5,577 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bass Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,577 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Bass Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaBass Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides