Chili, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Chili, 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 Chili 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 Chili — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chili — the short answer
Chili, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 130 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 130 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 Chili's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chili's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chili
Each reading below is measured for Chili itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChili runs about 207 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
MeasuredChili 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 Chili is in
Chili sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chili's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Miami County is mostly Eastern Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Chili
Every plant below cleared Chili's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chili?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Chili
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Chili, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chili
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chili. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DENVER EQUIPMENT CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- BEECHERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- CHAMNESS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- MIAMI COUNTY HIGHWAY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- NORTH MIAMI ELEMENTARY SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- LYLE DEEDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- MIAMI TRUCKING INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- CHARLES E BURNSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- CLEMONS ANTIQUES STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- LIPPERT COMPONENTS, INC. - DENVER, INToxics Release Inventory · 5.9 mi
- HERAEUS ELECTRO-NITE CO.Toxics Release Inventory · 6.0 mi
- HERAEUS ELECTRO-NITE COMPANY LLCBrownfields · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chili'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 Chili.
Total Sites
157
within ~10 miles of Chili
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chili
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chili
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chili, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chili — Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (97 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Chili
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 Chili average
Your land is one point inside Chili
Everything above resolves to Chili as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 130 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 Chili Average
Chili Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Chili
- ●One soil character for all of Chili
- ●Frost dates read at Chili's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chili's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chili
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chili, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chili averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chili — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chili average
How we know this about Chili
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 Chili’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 Chili
When does frost risk typically end in Chili?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chili typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Chili?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chili typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chili?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chili sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 19, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chili?
The federal record around Chili is a meaningful one — 157 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (97), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 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 Chili?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chili's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chili'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 Chili’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chili's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 130 acres it covers and 157 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chili's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chili's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 2 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 157 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chili, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chili's boundary and the 130 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Chili sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Chililydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chili's 130 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Miami County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Miami 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 Miami County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chili's 130 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chili you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 130 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 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 Chili-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaChili sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.