Lake Eliza, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Eliza, 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 Eliza 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 Eliza — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake Eliza — the short answer
Lake Eliza, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 304 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 304 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 Eliza's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Eliza's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Eliza
Each reading below is measured for Lake Eliza itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Eliza 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
MeasuredLake Eliza 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 Eliza is in
Lake Eliza sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Eliza's own centroid rather than borrowed from Porter County.
What Grows in Lake Eliza
Every plant below cleared Lake Eliza'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 Lake Eliza?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Lake Eliza
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Lake Eliza, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Eliza
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Eliza. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAITH BAPTIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WALTER C STOTTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CANDY STRIPE CAMPGROUNDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PORTER LAKES ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Lakes of the Four SeasonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Family Express 32Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PORTER TOWNSHIP SCHOOL CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- ATLANTIC PACIFIC LLCBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- DONALD PISKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- JAMES M REYNOLDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- BILL ZIEGERTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HOP N STOP MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Eliza'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 Eliza.
Total Sites
721
within ~10 miles of Lake Eliza
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Eliza
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Eliza
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Eliza
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 Eliza average
Your land is one point inside Lake Eliza
Everything above resolves to Lake Eliza as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 304 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 Eliza Average
Lake Eliza Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lake Eliza
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Eliza
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Eliza's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Eliza's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Eliza
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Eliza, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Eliza averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Eliza — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Eliza average
How we know this about Lake Eliza
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 Eliza’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 Eliza
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Eliza?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Eliza typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Lake Eliza?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Eliza typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Eliza?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Eliza sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 20, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Eliza?
The federal record around Lake Eliza is a meaningful one — 721 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (407), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Eliza?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Eliza's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Eliza'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 Eliza’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake Eliza's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 304 acres it covers and 721 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Eliza's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Eliza's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 3 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 721 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Eliza, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Eliza's boundary and the 304 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 Lake Eliza's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lake Elizalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Eliza's 304 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Porter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Porter 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 Porter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Eliza's 304 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Eliza you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 304 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Eliza-wide figureread your own land →