Bear Lake, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bear 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 Bear 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 Bear Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bear Lake — the short answer
Bear Lake, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 130 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 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 130 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 Bear Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bear Lake's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bear Lake
Each reading below is measured for Bear Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBear Lake runs about 199 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
MeasuredBear Lake 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 Bear Lake is in
Bear Lake sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bear Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Noble County.
What Grows in Bear Lake
Every plant below cleared Bear Lake's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bear Lake?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Bear Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Bear Lake, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bear Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bear Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ERDLYS BAIT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WALTER REED AUTO BROKERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WOLF LAKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WOLF LAKE MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- GOSS GROCERY & MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- AT & TUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- DEKKO HEATING TECHNOLOGIESBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- DEKKO HEATING TECHNOLOGIESToxics Release Inventory · 4.6 mi
- Jack & Dedra ShultzUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Noble Stores IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Chain Of Lakes Drive InUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- FOSTERS SALES & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bear 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 Bear Lake.
Total Sites
131
within ~10 miles of Bear Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
14 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bear Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bear Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bear Lake, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Bear Lake. 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 Bear 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 Bear Lake average
Your land is one point inside Bear Lake
Everything above resolves to Bear Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 130 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 Bear Lake Average
Bear Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bear Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Bear Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Bear Lake's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bear Lake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bear Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bear Lake, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bear Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bear Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bear Lake average
How we know this about Bear 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 Bear 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 Bear Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Bear Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bear Lake 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 Bear Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bear Lake 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 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bear Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bear Lake sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 16, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bear Lake?
The federal record around Bear Lake shows 131 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Bear Lake?
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 Bear Lake's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bear 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 Bear Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bear Lake's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 130 acres it covers and 131 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bear Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bear Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 30 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 131 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bear Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bear Lake's boundary and the 130 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bear Lake's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bear Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bear Lake's 130 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Noble County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Noble 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 Noble County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bear Lake's 130 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bear 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 130 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Bear Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaBear Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.