Goshen, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Goshen, 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 Goshen 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 Goshen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Goshen — the short answer
Goshen, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of city.
- 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)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 11K 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 Goshen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goshen's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goshen
Each reading below is measured for Goshen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGoshen runs about 200 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
MeasuredGoshen 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 Goshen is in
Goshen sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Goshen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elkhart County.
What Grows in Goshen
Every plant below cleared Goshen's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goshen?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 Oct 31 — 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 Goshen
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Goshen, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Goshen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goshen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SEVEN ELEVEN 32581Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- 7 ELEVEN 32581Brownfields · 300 ft
- WATER TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 7 ELEVENBrownfields · 1100 ft
- 7 Eleven 32576Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ELKHART COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DAIRY FARMERS OF AMERICA, INC. - GOSHEN, INBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Dairy Farmers of America IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BOBS COLLISION SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- GOSHEN STAMPING CO, INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- DAIRY FARMERS OF AMERICA, INCToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- T&M RUBBERBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goshen'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 Goshen.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goshen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goshen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goshen, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 142 sites within ~10 miles of Goshen. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Goshen
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 Goshen average
Your land is one point inside Goshen
Everything above resolves to Goshen as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 city 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 Goshen Average
Goshen Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Goshen
- ●One soil character for all of Goshen
- ●Frost dates read at Goshen's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goshen's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goshen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goshen, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goshen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goshen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goshen average
How we know this about Goshen
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Goshen’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Goshen
When does frost risk typically end in Goshen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goshen 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 Goshen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goshen 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 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goshen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goshen sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 17, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goshen?
The federal record around Goshen is a meaningful one — 859 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (368), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Goshen?
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 Goshen's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goshen'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 Goshen’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Goshen's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,475 acres it covers and 859 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goshen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goshen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 31 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 859 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goshen, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goshen's boundary and the 11,475 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goshen's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Goshenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Goshen's 11,475 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elkhart County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elkhart 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 Elkhart County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goshen's 11,475 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goshen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,475 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Goshen-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaGoshen sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides