Cambridge City, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cambridge City, 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 Cambridge City 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 Cambridge City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cambridge City — the short answer
Cambridge City, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 645 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 645 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 Cambridge City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cambridge City's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cambridge City
Each reading below is measured for Cambridge City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCambridge City runs about 197 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
MeasuredCambridge City 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 Cambridge City is in
Cambridge City sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cambridge City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wayne County.
What Grows in Cambridge City
Every plant below cleared Cambridge City's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cambridge City?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Cambridge City
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cambridge City checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 53 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cambridge City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cambridge City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PHILLIPS 66 COMPANY 021805Underground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- RUSSELL & PATRICIA HERSBERGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- MAIN STREET SHELL SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CLYDE FAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BARRETT PAVING MATERIALS INCBrownfields · 400 ft
- PAINTERS SUPPLY & EQUIPMENT CO.Brownfields · 500 ft
- MILLER CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- ED DUNGANUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- VerizonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- B & C VIDEOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CONVERTO MFG CO INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- STEELWORKS, MEG DIVISIONBrownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cambridge City'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 Cambridge City.
Total Sites
146
within ~10 miles of Cambridge City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cambridge City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cambridge City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cambridge City, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Cambridge City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Cambridge City
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 Cambridge City average
Your land is one point inside Cambridge City
Everything above resolves to Cambridge City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 645 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 Cambridge City Average
Cambridge City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cambridge City
- ●One soil character for all of Cambridge City
- ●Frost dates read at Cambridge City's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cambridge City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cambridge City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cambridge City, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cambridge City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cambridge City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cambridge City average
How we know this about Cambridge City
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 Cambridge City’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 Cambridge City
When does frost risk typically end in Cambridge City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cambridge City typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Cambridge City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cambridge City typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cambridge City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cambridge City sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 10, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cambridge City?
The federal record around Cambridge City is a meaningful one — 146 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (88), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Cambridge City?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cambridge City's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cambridge City'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 Cambridge City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cambridge City's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 645 acres it covers and 146 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cambridge City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cambridge City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 24 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 146 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cambridge City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cambridge City's boundary and the 645 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cambridge City's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cambridge City 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 Cambridge City's 645 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cambridge City's 645 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cambridge City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 645 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Cambridge City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaCambridge City sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides