Ireland, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ireland, 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 Ireland 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 Ireland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ireland — the short answer
Ireland, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 176 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 176 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 Ireland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ireland's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ireland
Each reading below is measured for Ireland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIreland runs about 219 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
MeasuredIreland 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 Ireland is in
Ireland sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ireland's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dubois County is mostly Interior Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ireland
Every plant below cleared Ireland's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ireland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Ireland
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ireland checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 113 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ireland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ireland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TERWISKE GLASS AND BODY INCBrownfields · 200 ft
- LEINENBACH TIRE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- SPUDS FOODMART INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BOBS AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- LECHNERS EXCAVATING INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HULSMAN ELECTRIC COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HULSMAN REFRIGERATION INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- SOLAR SOURCES INC SHAMROCK PREPARATION FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- JASPER BEVERAGE COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- JASPER CORPToxics Release Inventory · 3.3 mi
- LOYAL ORDER OF MOOSE PARKING LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ireland'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 Ireland.
Total Sites
236
within ~10 miles of Ireland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ireland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ireland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ireland, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 41 sites within ~10 miles of Ireland. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Ireland
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 Ireland average
Your land is one point inside Ireland
Everything above resolves to Ireland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 176 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 Ireland Average
Ireland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ireland
- ●One soil character for all of Ireland
- ●Frost dates read at Ireland's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ireland's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ireland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ireland, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ireland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ireland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ireland average
How we know this about Ireland
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 Ireland’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 Ireland
When does frost risk typically end in Ireland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ireland typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Ireland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ireland typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ireland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ireland sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 22, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ireland?
The federal record around Ireland is a meaningful one — 236 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (126), the nearest Brownfields 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 Ireland?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ireland's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ireland'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 Ireland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ireland's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 176 acres it covers and 236 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ireland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ireland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 5 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 236 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ireland, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ireland's boundary and the 176 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ireland sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ireland 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 Ireland's 176 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dubois County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dubois 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 Dubois County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ireland's 176 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ireland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 176 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Ireland-wide figureread your own land →
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