Chesterfield, 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 Chesterfield, 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 Chesterfield 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 Chesterfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chesterfield — the short answer
Chesterfield, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 876 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- 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
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 876 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 Chesterfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chesterfield's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chesterfield
Each reading below is measured for Chesterfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChesterfield runs about 208 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
MeasuredChesterfield 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 Chesterfield is in
Chesterfield sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chesterfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Chesterfield
Every plant below cleared Chesterfield's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chesterfield?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (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 Chesterfield
Survey cells within 31 miles of Chesterfield checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 55 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chesterfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chesterfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GE Petro IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- EASTGATE CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CHESTERFIELD WATER WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Rickers Petro Mart 14Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- William & Carolyn WalkerUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TruGreen ChemlawnUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- McQuicks OillubeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FRITO LAY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ANDERSON MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Pilot Travel Center 446Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Speedway 8039Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PHILLIPS 66 COMPANY 022002Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chesterfield'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 Chesterfield.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chesterfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chesterfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chesterfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chesterfield — Superfund (9 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (292 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Chesterfield
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 Chesterfield average
Your land is one point inside Chesterfield
Everything above resolves to Chesterfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 876 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 Chesterfield Average
Chesterfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Chesterfield
- ●One soil character for all of Chesterfield
- ●Frost dates read at Chesterfield's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chesterfield's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chesterfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chesterfield, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chesterfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chesterfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chesterfield average
How we know this about Chesterfield
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 Chesterfield’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 Chesterfield
When does frost risk typically end in Chesterfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chesterfield typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Chesterfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chesterfield 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 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chesterfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chesterfield sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 18, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chesterfield?
The federal record around Chesterfield is a meaningful one — 446 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (292), 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 Chesterfield?
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 Chesterfield's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chesterfield'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 Chesterfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chesterfield's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 876 acres it covers and 446 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chesterfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chesterfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 1 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 446 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chesterfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chesterfield's boundary and the 876 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chesterfield's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Chesterfield 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 Chesterfield's 876 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chesterfield's 876 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chesterfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 876 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 Chesterfield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaChesterfield sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides