Hidden Valley, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hidden Valley, 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 Hidden Valley 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 Hidden Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hidden Valley — the short answer
Hidden Valley, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Hidden Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hidden Valley's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hidden Valley
Each reading below is measured for Hidden Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHidden Valley runs about 223 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
MeasuredHidden Valley 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 Hidden Valley is in
Hidden Valley sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hidden Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dearborn County.
What Grows in Hidden Valley
Every plant below cleared Hidden Valley's own zone 6b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hidden Valley?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Hidden Valley
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Hidden Valley, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hidden Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hidden Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STATELINE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CITY OF GREENDALE UTILITIESPFAS · 1.9 mi
- VALLEY RURAL UTILITY COMPANYPFAS · 1.9 mi
- LAWRENCEBURG MUNICIPAL UTILITIESPFAS · 1.9 mi
- TRADELINE FABRICATINGBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Walts Fireworks IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Lawrence E Wright DBA Disc OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MONARCH SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- E-TOWN SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- JOSEPH I. SYKESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MALLARD COACH FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hidden Valley'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 Hidden Valley.
Total Sites
379
within ~10 miles of Hidden Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hidden Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hidden Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hidden Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hidden Valley — PFAS (9 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hidden Valley
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 Hidden Valley average
Your land is one point inside Hidden Valley
Everything above resolves to Hidden Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Hidden Valley Average
Hidden Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hidden Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Hidden Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Hidden Valley's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hidden Valley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hidden Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hidden Valley, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hidden Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hidden Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hidden Valley average
How we know this about Hidden Valley
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 Hidden Valley’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 Hidden Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Hidden Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hidden Valley typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Hidden Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hidden Valley typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hidden Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hidden Valley sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 27, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hidden Valley?
The federal record around Hidden Valley is a meaningful one — 379 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (216), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 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 Hidden Valley?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hidden Valley's scale — its 6b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hidden Valley'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 Hidden Valley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hidden Valley's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,714 acres it covers and 379 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hidden Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hidden Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 10 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 379 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hidden Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hidden Valley's boundary and the 2,714 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hidden Valley's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hidden Valleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hidden Valley's 2,714 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dearborn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dearborn 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 Dearborn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hidden Valley's 2,714 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hidden Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,714 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 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 Hidden Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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