Cordry Sweetwater Lakes, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cordry Sweetwater Lakes, 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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes 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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cordry Sweetwater Lakes — the short answer
Cordry Sweetwater Lakes, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
Each reading below is measured for Cordry Sweetwater Lakes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCordry Sweetwater Lakes 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
MeasuredCordry Sweetwater Lakes 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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes is in
Cordry Sweetwater Lakes sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brown County.
What Grows in Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
Every plant below cleared Cordry Sweetwater Lakes'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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cordry Sweetwater Lakes checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 72 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cordry Sweetwater Lakes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CORDRY SWEETWATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICTPFAS · 1700 ft
- CORDRY SWEETWATER CONSERVANCYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- United Telephone Company Indiana DBA Century Link Nineveh CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DREAM MAKER BATHS & KITCHENSBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- PRINCES LAKE LIFT STATION 1Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Tobacco Road 109Underground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- PRINCES LAKE WATER DEPARTMENTPFAS · 5.2 mi
- US ARMY NATIONAL GUARD CAMP ATTERBURY RANGESBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- US ARMY NATIONAL GUARD CAMP ATTERBURY RANGESToxics Release Inventory · 5.4 mi
- PRINCES LAKE WATER DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- ATTERBURY RESERVE FORCES TRAINING AREASuperfund · 5.7 mi
- ATTERBURY ENFORCEMENT HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cordry Sweetwater Lakes'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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes.
Total Sites
125
within ~10 miles of Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cordry Sweetwater Lakes, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 87 sites within ~10 miles of Cordry Sweetwater Lakes. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes average
Your land is one point inside Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
Everything above resolves to Cordry Sweetwater Lakes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes Average
Cordry Sweetwater Lakes Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
- ●One soil character for all of Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
- ●Frost dates read at Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cordry Sweetwater Lakes, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cordry Sweetwater Lakes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cordry Sweetwater Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cordry Sweetwater Lakes average
How we know this about Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes’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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes
When does frost risk typically end in Cordry Sweetwater Lakes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cordry Sweetwater Lakes typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Cordry Sweetwater Lakes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cordry Sweetwater Lakes typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cordry Sweetwater Lakes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cordry Sweetwater Lakes sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 22, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cordry Sweetwater Lakes?
The federal record around Cordry Sweetwater Lakes is a meaningful one — 125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest PFAS record about 0.3 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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's scale — its 6a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cordry Sweetwater Lakes'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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,706 acres it covers and 125 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 5 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cordry Sweetwater Lakes, the closest PFAS record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's boundary and the 1,706 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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cordry Sweetwater Lakes 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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's 1,706 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brown County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brown 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 Brown County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cordry Sweetwater Lakes's 1,706 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cordry Sweetwater Lakes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,706 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.3 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 Cordry Sweetwater Lakes-wide figureread your own land →