Bristol, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Bristol, 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 Bristol 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 Bristol — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bristol — the short answer
Bristol, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- 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
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Bristol's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bristol's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bristol
Each reading below is measured for Bristol itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBristol 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
MeasuredBristol 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 Bristol is in
Bristol sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bristol's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elkhart County.
What Grows in Bristol
Every plant below cleared Bristol'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 Bristol?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Bristol
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Bristol, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bristol
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bristol. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USGS ELKHART WELL 28S 2 INCH STEEL 26 FTNitrate · 750 ft
- ROBERT WEED PLYWOODToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- ROBERT WEED PLYWOODBrownfields · 900 ft
- ACME GENERAL WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NIBLOCK EXCAVATING INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- STEALTH ENTERPRISE LLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- DADON CORP DBA MERHOW INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 1400 ft
- DADON CORP DBA MERHOW INDUSTRIESToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- FEDERAL PAPERBOARD COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SPARTAN MOTORS USA INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SPARTAN MOTORS USA INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- ILLUSIONS PAINT & BODY SHOP LLCBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bristol'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 Bristol.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bristol
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bristol
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bristol, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bristol — Toxics Release Inventory (200 sites) and Superfund (20 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Bristol
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 Bristol average
Your land is one point inside Bristol
Everything above resolves to Bristol as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Bristol Average
Bristol Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bristol
- ●One soil character for all of Bristol
- ●Frost dates read at Bristol's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bristol's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bristol
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bristol, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bristol averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bristol — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bristol average
How we know this about Bristol
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 Bristol’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 Bristol
When does frost risk typically end in Bristol?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bristol typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Bristol?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bristol 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 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bristol?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bristol sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 17, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bristol?
The federal record around Bristol runs heavier than most — 1,357 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (528), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bristol?
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 Bristol's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bristol'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 Bristol’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bristol's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,396 acres it covers and 1,357 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bristol's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bristol's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 31 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,357 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bristol, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bristol's boundary and the 3,396 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 Bristol's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bristollydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bristol's 3,396 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elkhart County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elkhart 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 Elkhart County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bristol's 3,396 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bristol you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,396 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Bristol-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaBristol sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides