Gilmer Park, 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.
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 Gilmer Park, 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 Gilmer Park 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 Gilmer Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gilmer Park — the short answer
Gilmer Park, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 294 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- 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
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 294 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 Gilmer Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gilmer Park's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gilmer Park
Each reading below is measured for Gilmer Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGilmer Park runs about 203 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
MeasuredGilmer Park 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 Gilmer Park is in
Gilmer Park sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gilmer Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Joseph County.
What Grows in Gilmer Park
Every plant below cleared Gilmer Park's own zone 6a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gilmer Park?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (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 Gilmer Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Gilmer Park, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gilmer Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gilmer Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPARKLE WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 37/2E-36F1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- KOCOLENE SERVICE STATION 83Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Former McClure Store 54Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- NW-29 SOUTH BEND, IND.Nitrate · 1700 ft
- GVW TireUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Bradberry Brothers IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- COUNTRY CONVENIENCEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- COUNTRY CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Osborn Mini Mart 3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COMMUNITY BAPTIST CHURCH SCHOOL 71Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHLAWN CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gilmer Park'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 Gilmer Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gilmer Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gilmer Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gilmer Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gilmer Park — Superfund (21 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (94 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Gilmer Park
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 Gilmer Park average
Your land is one point inside Gilmer Park
Everything above resolves to Gilmer Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 294 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 Gilmer Park Average
Gilmer Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Gilmer Park
- ●One soil character for all of Gilmer Park
- ●Frost dates read at Gilmer Park's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gilmer Park's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gilmer Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gilmer Park, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gilmer Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gilmer Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gilmer Park average
How we know this about Gilmer Park
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 Gilmer Park’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 Gilmer Park
When does frost risk typically end in Gilmer Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gilmer Park typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Gilmer Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gilmer Park 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 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gilmer Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gilmer Park sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 20, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gilmer Park?
The federal record around Gilmer Park runs heavier than most — 1,328 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (706), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gilmer Park?
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 Gilmer Park's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gilmer Park'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 Gilmer Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gilmer Park's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 294 acres it covers and 1,328 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gilmer Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gilmer Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Nov 3 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,328 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gilmer Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gilmer Park's boundary and the 294 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gilmer Park's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gilmer Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gilmer Park's 294 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Joseph County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Joseph 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 St. Joseph County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gilmer Park's 294 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gilmer Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 294 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 Gilmer Park-wide figureread your own land →