Lake Bruce, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Lake Bruce, 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 Lake Bruce 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 Lake Bruce — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Bruce — the short answer
Lake Bruce, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 374 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 374 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 Lake Bruce's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Bruce's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Bruce
Each reading below is measured for Lake Bruce itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Bruce 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
MeasuredLake Bruce 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 Lake Bruce is in
Lake Bruce sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Bruce's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fulton County.
What Grows in Lake Bruce
Every plant below cleared Lake Bruce'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 Lake Bruce?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Lake Bruce
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Lake Bruce, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Bruce
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Bruce. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THOMAS HARDWARE INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- FOUR COUNTY LANDFILLBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- Four County LandfillUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- FOUR COUNTY LANDFILLSuperfund · 4.4 mi
- The Station Gas & GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- KEWANNA METAL SPECIALTIES INCBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- Winamac Coil Spring IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Beattie Oil Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- JOES SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- SPRINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- NW-34 KEWANNA, IND.Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- BUCKEYE AGRICULTURE CENTER INCORPORATED KEWANNAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Bruce'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 Lake Bruce.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Lake Bruce
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Bruce
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Bruce
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Bruce, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Bruce — Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (82 sites). 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.
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 Lake Bruce
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 Lake Bruce average
Your land is one point inside Lake Bruce
Everything above resolves to Lake Bruce as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 374 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 Lake Bruce Average
Lake Bruce Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lake Bruce
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Bruce
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Bruce's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Bruce's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Bruce
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Bruce, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Bruce averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Bruce — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Bruce average
How we know this about Lake Bruce
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 Lake Bruce’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 Lake Bruce
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Bruce?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Bruce typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Lake Bruce?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Bruce typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Bruce?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Bruce sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 15, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Bruce?
The federal record around Lake Bruce is a meaningful one — 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.6 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 Lake Bruce?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Bruce's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Bruce'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 Lake Bruce’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Bruce's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 374 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Bruce's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Bruce's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 29 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Bruce, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Bruce's boundary and the 374 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 Lake Bruce's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lake Brucelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Bruce's 374 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fulton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fulton 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 Fulton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Bruce's 374 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Bruce you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 374 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.6 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 Lake Bruce-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaLake Bruce sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides