Freetown, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Freetown, 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 Freetown 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 Freetown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Freetown — the short answer
Freetown, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 444 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 444 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 6b is Freetown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Freetown's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Freetown
Each reading below is measured for Freetown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFreetown 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
MeasuredFreetown sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Freetown is in
Freetown sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Freetown's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Jackson County is mostly Eastern Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Freetown
Every plant below cleared Freetown's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Freetown?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Freetown
Survey cells within 31 miles of Freetown checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 65 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Freetown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Freetown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILLMAN GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DENNYS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BURNSIDE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- RUSSELL HUBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Ruckers Grocery & HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- EASYVILLE GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- PENNYS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- CHESTER RUSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Jackson County Water Utility IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- WHITE RIVER SOY PROCESSING LLCToxics Release Inventory · 4.8 mi
- Rose Acres Farms IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- CLEAR SPRINGS RADIO TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Freetown'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 Freetown.
Total Sites
63
within ~10 miles of Freetown
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Freetown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Freetown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Freetown, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 43 sites within ~10 miles of Freetown. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Freetown
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 Freetown average
Your land is one point inside Freetown
Everything above resolves to Freetown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 444 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 Freetown Average
Freetown Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Freetown
- ●One soil character for all of Freetown
- ●Frost dates read at Freetown's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Freetown's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Freetown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Freetown, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Freetown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Freetown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Freetown average
How we know this about Freetown
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 Freetown’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 Freetown
When does frost risk typically end in Freetown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Freetown typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Freetown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Freetown typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Freetown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Freetown sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 20, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Freetown?
The federal record around Freetown shows 63 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Freetown?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Freetown's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Freetown'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 Freetown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Freetown's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 444 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Freetown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Freetown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 3 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Freetown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Freetown's boundary and the 444 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Freetown sits in the Interior Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Freetown 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 Freetown's 444 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Freetown's 444 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Freetown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 444 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Freetown-wide figureread your own land →