Parke County, in Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Parke County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Parke 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 Parke County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Parke County — the short answer
Parke County, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 285K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 285K 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 Parke County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Parke County's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Parke County
Across a year, Parke County accumulates about 3,336 growing degree days above 50°F, about 180 more than the middle Indiana county — ahead of 58 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 Parke County
Across Parke County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Reesville, Russell, and Hennepin are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.1–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
15%
Hydric soils
5%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Parke County
The USDA soil survey maps 60% of Parke County as well drained — but another 38% drains differently: 27% somewhat poorly drained, 5% poorly drained.
Reesville is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Russell (13%) and Hennepin (11%).
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 Parke County
Each reading below is measured for Parke 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 Parke County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Parke County runs about pH 6.1–6.7, 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
Season length
MeasuredParke County runs about 212 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
MeasuredParke County 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 Parke County is in
Parke County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Interior River Valleys and Hills (53%) and Eastern Corn Belt Plains (44%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Parke County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Parke County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 212-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 Parke 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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Parke County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Parke County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 79 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly8 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Parke County
USGS estimates 137,583 lb of Glyphosate on Parke County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (51,933 lb) and Acetochlor (35,715 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 Parke County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Parke County — 92 documented sites across 6 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 Parke 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 Parke County
Closest first, across Parke County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WELL 1 ROCKVILLE, IMD.Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- WELL 2 ROCKVILLE, IND.Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- FLORINDA PRUITTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WELL 2(3) ROCKVILLE, INDNitrate · 1.3 mi
- WESTLAND COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Mini Mart EastUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DORMEYER INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- ROCKVILLE MUNICIPALITY BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- KEVIN B JACKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PARKE COUNTY RURAL ELECTRIC MEMBERSHIP COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- ROCKVILLE JR-SR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- WIMMER FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Parke 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 Parke County.
Total Sites
92
across Parke County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Parke County
Severity Distribution
across Parke County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Parke 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 Parke County average
Your land is one point inside Parke County
Everything above resolves to Parke County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 285K 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 Parke County Average
Parke County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Parke County
- ●One soil character for all of Parke County
- ●Frost dates read at Parke County's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Parke County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Parke County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Parke County, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Parke County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Parke County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Parke County average
How we know this about Parke 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 Parke County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Parke County
When does frost risk typically end in Parke County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Parke County typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Parke County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Parke County sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 19, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Parke County?
The federal record around Parke County is a meaningful one — 92 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 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.
Everything above is measured at Parke County's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Parke 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 Parke County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Parke County's own scale — its own ~212-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 92 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Parke County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Parke County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Parke CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 92 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Parke County's boundary and the 284,624 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Parke County spans, Interior River Valleys and Hills the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Parke County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Parke 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 Parke County — the ~212 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 Parke County's 284,624 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 92 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 Parke Countyread your own land →