Lake Cicott, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Lake Cicott, 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 Cicott 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 Cicott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Cicott — the short answer
Lake Cicott, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 266 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 266 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 Cicott's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Cicott's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Cicott
Each reading below is measured for Lake Cicott itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Cicott runs about 208 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
MeasuredLake Cicott 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 Cicott is in
Lake Cicott sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Cicott's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cass County is mostly Eastern Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lake Cicott
Every plant below cleared Lake Cicott's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Cicott?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Lake Cicott
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Lake Cicott, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Cicott
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Cicott. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Superior Parts IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- AT & T N 11 N CARRIER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- BURNETTSVILLE GAS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Kova Ag Products IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Carters Concrete Block IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- MARGARET L HOLMESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- FRANCE PARK CASS COUNTY PARKS DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- ANDERSON MIKE PONTIAC GMCBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- EASTLAWN ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- AETNA FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- IW-18 LOGANSPORT, IND.Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- OVERWAY PETROLEUM FAST LUBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Cicott'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 Cicott.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Cicott
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Cicott
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Cicott, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Cicott — Toxics Release Inventory (27 sites) and Superfund (3 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Lake Cicott
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 Cicott average
Your land is one point inside Lake Cicott
Everything above resolves to Lake Cicott as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 266 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 Cicott Average
Lake Cicott Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lake Cicott
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Cicott
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Cicott's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Cicott's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Cicott
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Cicott, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Cicott averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Cicott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Cicott average
How we know this about Lake Cicott
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 Cicott’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 Cicott
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Cicott?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Cicott typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Lake Cicott?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Cicott typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Cicott?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Cicott sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 19, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Cicott?
The federal record around Lake Cicott is a meaningful one — 199 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (120), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Cicott?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Cicott's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Cicott'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 Cicott’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Cicott's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 266 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Cicott's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Cicott's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 2 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Cicott, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Cicott's boundary and the 266 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lake Cicott sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lake Cicottlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Cicott's 266 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cass County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cass 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 Cass County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Cicott's 266 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Cicott you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 266 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Cicott-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaLake Cicott sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides