Elberfeld, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Elberfeld, 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 Elberfeld 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 Elberfeld — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elberfeld — the short answer
Elberfeld, Indiana: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 196 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 196 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 7a is Elberfeld's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elberfeld's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elberfeld
Each reading below is measured for Elberfeld itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElberfeld runs about 229 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
MeasuredElberfeld sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Elberfeld is in
Elberfeld sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elberfeld's own centroid rather than borrowed from Warrick County.
What Grows in Elberfeld
Every plant below cleared Elberfeld's own zone 7a and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elberfeld?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Elberfeld
Survey cells within 31 miles of Elberfeld checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 141 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Elberfeld
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elberfeld. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Chuckles 15Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- RONALD L KLEIMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JH SERVICE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NAAS MATERIALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CIRCLE A MART 109Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- VA-3 EVANSVILLE, IND.Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- NORTH AMERICAN LIGHTINGBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- AT & T STANLEY RADIO TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Freundenberg Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CHESAPEAKEBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- 005S010W01E001Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- PEABODY COAL CO LYNNVILLE MINE (SIA)Superfund · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elberfeld'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 Elberfeld.
Total Sites
200
within ~10 miles of Elberfeld
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elberfeld
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elberfeld
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Elberfeld
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 Elberfeld average
Your land is one point inside Elberfeld
Everything above resolves to Elberfeld as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 196 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 Elberfeld Average
Elberfeld Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Elberfeld
- ●One soil character for all of Elberfeld
- ●Frost dates read at Elberfeld's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elberfeld's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elberfeld
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elberfeld, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elberfeld averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elberfeld — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elberfeld average
How we know this about Elberfeld
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 Elberfeld’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 Elberfeld
When does frost risk typically end in Elberfeld?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elberfeld typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Elberfeld?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elberfeld typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elberfeld?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elberfeld sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 26, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elberfeld?
The federal record around Elberfeld is a meaningful one — 200 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (113), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Elberfeld?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elberfeld's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elberfeld'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 Elberfeld’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Elberfeld's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 196 acres it covers and 200 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elberfeld's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elberfeld's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 9 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 200 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elberfeld, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elberfeld's boundary and the 196 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elberfeld's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Elberfeld 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 Elberfeld's 196 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warrick County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warrick 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 Warrick County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elberfeld's 196 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elberfeld you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 196 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Elberfeld-wide figureread your own land →
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