Kentland, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kentland, 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 Kentland 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 Kentland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kentland — the short answer
Kentland, Indiana: USDA zone 5b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 864 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 864 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 5b is Kentland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kentland's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kentland
Each reading below is measured for Kentland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKentland 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
MeasuredKentland sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Kentland is in
Kentland sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kentland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Newton County.
What Grows in Kentland
Every plant below cleared Kentland's own zone 5b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kentland?
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 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 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Kentland
Survey cells within 31 miles of Kentland checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 57 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kentland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kentland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JASPER COUNTY FARM BUREAU COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ROBERT SIMONS FARMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- United Telephone Company Indiana DBA Century Link Kentland CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- THOMAS W SONDERGRATHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE 1935Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ETHAN ALLEN INCORPORATED MIDWEST DISTRICT CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- THE HOLLEY CORPORATION OF INDIANAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- DON CENTER CHEVROLET BUICK INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Gavilon FertilizerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- NEWTON COUNTY RURAL ELECTRIC MEMBERSHIP COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Sidhu & Son Gas & Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Peoples Ready Mix IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kentland'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 Kentland.
Total Sites
77
within ~10 miles of Kentland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kentland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kentland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kentland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kentland — Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (55 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Kentland
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 Kentland average
Your land is one point inside Kentland
Everything above resolves to Kentland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 864 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 Kentland Average
Kentland Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Kentland
- ●One soil character for all of Kentland
- ●Frost dates read at Kentland's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kentland's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kentland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kentland, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kentland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kentland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kentland average
How we know this about Kentland
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 Kentland’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 Kentland
When does frost risk typically end in Kentland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kentland 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 Kentland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kentland typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kentland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kentland sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 13, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kentland?
The federal record around Kentland shows 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Kentland?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kentland's scale — its 5b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kentland'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 Kentland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kentland's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 864 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kentland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kentland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 27 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kentland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kentland's boundary and the 864 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kentland's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Kentland 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 Kentland's 864 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Newton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Newton 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 Newton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kentland's 864 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kentland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 864 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Kentland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaKentland sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.