Billtown, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Billtown, 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 Billtown 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 Billtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Billtown — the short answer
Billtown, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 272 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 272 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 Billtown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Billtown's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Billtown
Each reading below is measured for Billtown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBilltown runs about 208 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
MeasuredBilltown 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 Billtown is in
Billtown sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Billtown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Billtown
Every plant below cleared Billtown's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Billtown?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Billtown
Survey cells within 31 miles of Billtown checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 95 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Billtown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Billtown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T12NR07W03 NENE SS 5101Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- PENMANS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- BOB BOWEN FORD INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- STARK'S AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- ORPHAN USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- HUNTER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE 1825Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- VIDEO SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Northview Grab & Go MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- NATIONWISE AUTO PARTS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- G & S ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HUGHES AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Billtown'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 Billtown.
Total Sites
312
within ~10 miles of Billtown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Billtown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Billtown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Billtown, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Billtown. 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 Billtown
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 Billtown average
Your land is one point inside Billtown
Everything above resolves to Billtown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 272 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 Billtown Average
Billtown Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Billtown
- ●One soil character for all of Billtown
- ●Frost dates read at Billtown's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Billtown's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Billtown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Billtown, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Billtown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Billtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Billtown average
How we know this about Billtown
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 Billtown’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 Billtown
When does frost risk typically end in Billtown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Billtown typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Billtown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Billtown typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Billtown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Billtown sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 15, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Billtown?
The federal record around Billtown is a meaningful one — 312 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (142), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Billtown?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Billtown's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Billtown'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 Billtown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Billtown's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 272 acres it covers and 312 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Billtown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Billtown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 29 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 312 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Billtown, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Billtown's boundary and the 272 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Billtown's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Billtown 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 Billtown's 272 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Billtown's 272 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Billtown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 272 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Billtown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaBilltown sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides