Goldsmith, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Goldsmith, 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 Goldsmith 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 Goldsmith — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Goldsmith — the short answer
Goldsmith, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 132 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 132 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 Goldsmith's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goldsmith's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goldsmith
Each reading below is measured for Goldsmith itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGoldsmith runs about 205 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
MeasuredGoldsmith 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 Goldsmith is in
Goldsmith sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Goldsmith's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tipton County.
What Grows in Goldsmith
Every plant below cleared Goldsmith's own zone 6a and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goldsmith?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Goldsmith
Survey cells within 31 miles of Goldsmith checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 32 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Goldsmith
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goldsmith. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORFOLK SOUTHERN CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 1 PRO ENVIRONMENTALBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CAMPBELL CHRYSLER PRODUCTS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- TIPTON FORD LINCOLN MERCURY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- FCA US LLC TIPTON TRANSMISSION PLANTBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- AMOCO SERVICE STATION 20103Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Former Days MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Former Sherrille GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- WABASH ALLOYS, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- 2A MNitrate · 3.9 mi
- 2B HNitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goldsmith'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 Goldsmith.
Total Sites
119
within ~10 miles of Goldsmith
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goldsmith
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goldsmith
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 Goldsmith
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 Goldsmith average
Your land is one point inside Goldsmith
Everything above resolves to Goldsmith as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 132 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 Goldsmith Average
Goldsmith Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Goldsmith
- ●One soil character for all of Goldsmith
- ●Frost dates read at Goldsmith's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goldsmith's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goldsmith
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goldsmith, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goldsmith averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goldsmith — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goldsmith average
How we know this about Goldsmith
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 Goldsmith’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 Goldsmith
When does frost risk typically end in Goldsmith?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goldsmith typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Goldsmith?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goldsmith typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goldsmith?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goldsmith sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 17, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goldsmith?
The federal record around Goldsmith is a meaningful one — 119 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (64), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Goldsmith?
From about Oct 1 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 Oct 31 (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 Oct 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Goldsmith's scale — its 6a band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goldsmith'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 Goldsmith’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Goldsmith's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 132 acres it covers and 119 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goldsmith's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goldsmith's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 31 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 119 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goldsmith, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goldsmith's boundary and the 132 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goldsmith's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Goldsmith 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 Goldsmith's 132 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tipton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tipton 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 Tipton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goldsmith's 132 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goldsmith you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 132 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 Goldsmith-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaGoldsmith sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides