Bourbon, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Bourbon, 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 Bourbon 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 Bourbon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bourbon — the short answer
Bourbon, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 737 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 737 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 Bourbon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bourbon's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bourbon
Each reading below is measured for Bourbon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBourbon runs about 203 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
MeasuredBourbon 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 Bourbon is in
Bourbon sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bourbon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marshall County.
What Grows in Bourbon
Every plant below cleared Bourbon's own zone 6a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bourbon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Bourbon
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Bourbon, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bourbon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bourbon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOURBON WATER DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- ROMINE EMS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Frontier CommunicationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- HARMONY PRESSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- ROLAND WAGONER ESTATE THOMAS WAGONERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Shell Dealer BourbonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Lemler Oil IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FREEDOM EXPRESS NO 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- REDMANS AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ROBERT J MARKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- NORTHERN INDIANA MANUFACTURING INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BOURBON STREET DEPARTMENT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bourbon'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 Bourbon.
Total Sites
131
within ~10 miles of Bourbon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bourbon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bourbon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bourbon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bourbon — Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (85 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 Bourbon
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 Bourbon average
Your land is one point inside Bourbon
Everything above resolves to Bourbon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 737 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 Bourbon Average
Bourbon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bourbon
- ●One soil character for all of Bourbon
- ●Frost dates read at Bourbon's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bourbon's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bourbon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bourbon, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bourbon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bourbon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bourbon average
How we know this about Bourbon
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 Bourbon’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 Bourbon
When does frost risk typically end in Bourbon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bourbon typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Bourbon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bourbon typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bourbon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bourbon sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 17, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bourbon?
The federal record around Bourbon is a meaningful one — 131 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), 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 Bourbon?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bourbon's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bourbon'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 Bourbon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bourbon's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 737 acres it covers and 131 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bourbon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bourbon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 31 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 131 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bourbon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bourbon's boundary and the 737 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bourbon's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bourbonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bourbon's 737 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall 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 Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bourbon's 737 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bourbon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 737 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 Bourbon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaBourbon sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides