Blanford, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Blanford, 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 Blanford 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 Blanford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blanford — the short answer
Blanford, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 271 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 271 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 Blanford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blanford's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blanford
Each reading below is measured for Blanford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlanford runs about 212 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
MeasuredBlanford 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 Blanford is in
Blanford sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blanford's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Vermillion County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Blanford
Every plant below cleared Blanford's own zone 6a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blanford?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Blanford
Survey cells within 31 miles of Blanford 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 Blanford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blanford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STANDARD ASPHALTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Clinton Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- PEABODY COAL COMPANY UNIVERSAL MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- FAIRVIEW PARK WATER UTILITIESPFAS · 3.6 mi
- CLINTON WATER UTILITYPFAS · 3.6 mi
- ELYS SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- KWIK STOP INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- DUMP TRUCKS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- J R CHEVROLETBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- MARSHALL PONTIAC OLDS BUICK GMCBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- CLINTON TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blanford'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 Blanford.
Total Sites
127
within ~10 miles of Blanford
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blanford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blanford
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Blanford
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 Blanford average
Your land is one point inside Blanford
Everything above resolves to Blanford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 271 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 Blanford Average
Blanford Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Blanford
- ●One soil character for all of Blanford
- ●Frost dates read at Blanford's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blanford's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blanford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blanford, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blanford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blanford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blanford average
How we know this about Blanford
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 Blanford’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 Blanford
When does frost risk typically end in Blanford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blanford typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Blanford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blanford typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blanford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blanford sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 18, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blanford?
The federal record around Blanford is a meaningful one — 127 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Blanford?
From about Oct 2 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 Nov 1 (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 Nov 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blanford's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blanford'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 Blanford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Blanford's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 271 acres it covers and 127 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blanford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blanford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 1 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 127 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blanford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blanford's boundary and the 271 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Blanford sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Blanford 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 Blanford's 271 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vermillion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vermillion 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 Vermillion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blanford's 271 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blanford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 271 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Blanford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaBlanford sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides