Brooklyn, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brooklyn, 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 Brooklyn 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 Brooklyn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brooklyn — the short answer
Brooklyn, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 634 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- 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
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 634 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 Brooklyn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brooklyn's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brooklyn
Each reading below is measured for Brooklyn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrooklyn runs about 209 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
MeasuredBrooklyn 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 Brooklyn is in
Brooklyn sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brooklyn's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Morgan County is mostly Interior Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Brooklyn
Every plant below cleared Brooklyn's own zone 6a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brooklyn?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Brooklyn
Survey cells within 31 miles of Brooklyn checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 81 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brooklyn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brooklyn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROOKLYN DAIRYLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ARCOSA LW HPB LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- MOR 4Nitrate · 2100 ft
- FORMERLY BROOKLYN AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Hydraulic Press Brick CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Dan Terrell Trucking IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Valcom IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- SUN POLYMERS INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- SUN POLYMERS INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- NUGENESIS INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- CROUCH TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- LINEL LLCBrownfields · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brooklyn'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 Brooklyn.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brooklyn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brooklyn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brooklyn, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Brooklyn. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Brooklyn
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 Brooklyn average
Your land is one point inside Brooklyn
Everything above resolves to Brooklyn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 634 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 Brooklyn Average
Brooklyn Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Brooklyn
- ●One soil character for all of Brooklyn
- ●Frost dates read at Brooklyn's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brooklyn's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brooklyn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brooklyn, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brooklyn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brooklyn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brooklyn average
How we know this about Brooklyn
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 Brooklyn’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 Brooklyn
When does frost risk typically end in Brooklyn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brooklyn typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Brooklyn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brooklyn 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 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brooklyn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brooklyn sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 18, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brooklyn?
The federal record around Brooklyn is a meaningful one — 300 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (157), 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 Brooklyn?
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 Brooklyn's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brooklyn'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 Brooklyn’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brooklyn's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 634 acres it covers and 300 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brooklyn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brooklyn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 1 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 300 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brooklyn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brooklyn's boundary and the 634 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Brooklyn sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Brooklyn 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 Brooklyn's 634 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morgan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morgan 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 Morgan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brooklyn's 634 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brooklyn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 634 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 Brooklyn-wide figureread your own land →