Cartersburg, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cartersburg, 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 Cartersburg 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 Cartersburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cartersburg — the short answer
Cartersburg, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 200 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 200 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 Cartersburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cartersburg's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cartersburg
Each reading below is measured for Cartersburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCartersburg runs about 217 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
MeasuredCartersburg 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 Cartersburg is in
Cartersburg sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cartersburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hendricks County.
What Grows in Cartersburg
Every plant below cleared Cartersburg's own zone 6a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cartersburg?
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 6 — 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 Cartersburg
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cartersburg checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 71 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cartersburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cartersburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PLAINFIELD ELKS LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- LAMBERT WENDELL S & JANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BELLEVILLE BODYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- SETTLES AUTO & TRUCK REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BELLEVILLE MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Hometown MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- DANVILLE BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- HINES BINDERYBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 5067Brownfields · 2.5 mi
- PEABODY COAL DUGGER MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Plainfield Correctional FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cartersburg'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 Cartersburg.
Total Sites
484
within ~10 miles of Cartersburg
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cartersburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cartersburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cartersburg, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Cartersburg. 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 Cartersburg
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 Cartersburg average
Your land is one point inside Cartersburg
Everything above resolves to Cartersburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 200 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 Cartersburg Average
Cartersburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cartersburg
- ●One soil character for all of Cartersburg
- ●Frost dates read at Cartersburg's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cartersburg's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cartersburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cartersburg, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cartersburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cartersburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cartersburg average
How we know this about Cartersburg
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 Cartersburg’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 Cartersburg
When does frost risk typically end in Cartersburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cartersburg 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 Cartersburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cartersburg typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cartersburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cartersburg sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 23, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cartersburg?
The federal record around Cartersburg is a meaningful one — 484 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (234), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Cartersburg?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cartersburg's scale — its 6a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cartersburg'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 Cartersburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cartersburg's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 200 acres it covers and 484 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cartersburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cartersburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 6 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 484 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cartersburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cartersburg's boundary and the 200 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cartersburg's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cartersburg 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 Cartersburg's 200 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hendricks County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hendricks 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 Hendricks County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cartersburg's 200 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cartersburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 200 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Cartersburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaCartersburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides