LaGrange County, in Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
LaGrange County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across LaGrange County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 LaGrange County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
LaGrange County — the short answer
LaGrange County, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 243K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 243K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 LaGrange County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against LaGrange County's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in LaGrange County
Across a year, LaGrange County accumulates about 2,661 growing degree days above 50°F, about 495 fewer than the middle Indiana county — ahead of 1 of Indiana’s 92 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in LaGrange County
Across LaGrange County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Oshtemo, Wawasee, and Hillsdale are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.3–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
16%
Hydric soils
24%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across LaGrange County
The USDA soil survey maps 52% of LaGrange County as well drained — but another 45% drains differently: 15% poorly drained, 12% somewhat poorly drained.
Oshtemo is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Wawasee (10%) and Hillsdale (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in LaGrange County
Each reading below is measured for LaGrange County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across LaGrange County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across LaGrange County runs about pH 6.3–6.5, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 24% of LaGrange County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredLaGrange County runs about 196 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
The kind of country LaGrange County is in
LaGrange County sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in LaGrange County
We scored all 1,086 plants against LaGrange County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 196-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile.
Is it too late to plant in LaGrange County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 LaGrange County
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from LaGrange County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in LaGrange County
USGS estimates 83,926 lb of Glyphosate on LaGrange County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (47,865 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (22,584 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across LaGrange County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across LaGrange County — 228 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across LaGrange County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near LaGrange County
Closest first, across LaGrange County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORRIS TRUCK SERVICE INCBrownfields · 400 ft
- HITES AUTO BODYBrownfields · 550 ft
- LA WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- LA WESTBrownfields · 800 ft
- Parkview Lagrange HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PARKVIEW MEDICAL GROUP SHIPSHEWANABrownfields · 1200 ft
- LAGRANGE SHERIFF OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- LAGRANGE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- NATIONAL OIL & GAS LAGRANGE 9 & 20Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LAGRANGE FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NATIONAL OIL 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AUTO PARTS CO., INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from LaGrange County'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 LaGrange County.
Total Sites
228
across LaGrange County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across LaGrange County
Severity Distribution
across LaGrange County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around LaGrange County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 27 sites across LaGrange County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 LaGrange County
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 LaGrange County average
Your land is one point inside LaGrange County
Everything above resolves to LaGrange County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 243K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the LaGrange County Average
LaGrange County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across LaGrange County
- ●One soil character for all of LaGrange County
- ●Frost dates read at LaGrange County's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not LaGrange County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in LaGrange County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in LaGrange County, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that LaGrange County averages can't show:
We read public map data around LaGrange County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the LaGrange County average
How we know this about LaGrange County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where LaGrange County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about LaGrange County
When does frost risk typically end in LaGrange County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in LaGrange County typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
How long is the growing season in LaGrange County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, LaGrange County sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 15, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in LaGrange County?
The federal record around LaGrange County is a meaningful one — 228 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (106), the nearest Brownfields 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.
Everything above is measured at LaGrange County's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of LaGrange County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Indiana's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at LaGrange County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at LaGrange County's own scale — its own ~196-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 228 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- LaGrange County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- LaGrange County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in LaGrange CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 228 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- LaGrange County's boundary and the 242,964 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- LaGrange County sitting wholly inside the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in LaGrange County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto LaGrange County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Indiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Indiana
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across LaGrange County — the ~196 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among LaGrange County's 242,964 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 228 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over LaGrange Countyread your own land →