Kennard, 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.
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 Kennard, 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 Kennard 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 Kennard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kennard — the short answer
Kennard, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 271 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 271 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 Kennard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kennard's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kennard
Each reading below is measured for Kennard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKennard runs about 199 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredKennard 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 Kennard is in
Kennard sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kennard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henry County.
What Grows in Kennard
Every plant below cleared Kennard's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kennard?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Kennard
Survey cells within 31 miles of Kennard checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 69 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kennard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kennard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GEORGE MILLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DON LOWE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- KENNARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- H & B MACHINE & ENGINEERINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- JEFFERY LEE MINNICKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- GROSS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- GASAMERICAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- DAUM OVER NITE EXPRESS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- TECH CASTINGS ADDITIONBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- HOWARD MCDONALDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- MARATHON POINT SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kennard'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 Kennard.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kennard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kennard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kennard, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kennard — Superfund (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (157 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Kennard
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 Kennard average
Your land is one point inside Kennard
Everything above resolves to Kennard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 271 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 Kennard Average
Kennard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Kennard
- ●One soil character for all of Kennard
- ●Frost dates read at Kennard's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kennard's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kennard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kennard, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kennard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kennard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kennard average
How we know this about Kennard
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 Kennard’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 Kennard
When does frost risk typically end in Kennard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kennard typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Kennard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kennard typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kennard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kennard sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 12, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kennard?
The federal record around Kennard is a meaningful one — 220 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (157), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Kennard?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kennard's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kennard'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 Kennard’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kennard's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 271 acres it covers and 220 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kennard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kennard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 26 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 220 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kennard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kennard's boundary and the 271 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kennard's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Kennard 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 Kennard's 271 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henry 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 Henry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kennard's 271 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kennard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 271 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Kennard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaKennard sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides