Kempton, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kempton, 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 Kempton 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 Kempton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kempton — the short answer
Kempton, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 104 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)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 104 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 Kempton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kempton's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kempton
Each reading below is measured for Kempton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKempton runs about 206 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
MeasuredKempton 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 Kempton is in
Kempton sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kempton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tipton County.
What Grows in Kempton
Every plant below cleared Kempton's own zone 6a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kempton?
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 Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Kempton
Spotted lanternfly documented 31 miles from Kempton, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kempton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kempton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Co Alliance LLP Kempton AgronomyUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Co Alliance LLP Circleville ElevatorUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- DOYAL J RICHARDS ET ALUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- NORFOLK SOUTHERN CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 1 PRO ENVIRONMENTALBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- 2B HNitrate · 4.8 mi
- TIPTON FORD LINCOLN MERCURY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- CAMPBELL CHRYSLER PRODUCTS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- AMOCO SERVICE STATION 20103Underground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- 2A MNitrate · 5.5 mi
- FCA US LLC TIPTON TRANSMISSION PLANTBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- Former Days MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kempton'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 Kempton.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Kempton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kempton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kempton
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 Kempton
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 Kempton average
Your land is one point inside Kempton
Everything above resolves to Kempton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 104 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 Kempton Average
Kempton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Kempton
- ●One soil character for all of Kempton
- ●Frost dates read at Kempton's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kempton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kempton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kempton, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kempton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kempton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kempton average
How we know this about Kempton
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 Kempton’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 Kempton
When does frost risk typically end in Kempton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kempton 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 Kempton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kempton typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kempton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kempton sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 18, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kempton?
The federal record around Kempton is a meaningful one — 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), 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 Kempton?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kempton's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kempton'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 Kempton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kempton's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 104 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kempton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kempton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 1 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kempton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kempton's boundary and the 104 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kempton's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kemptonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kempton's 104 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 Kempton's 104 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kempton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 104 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 Kempton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaKempton sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides