Lakes of the Four Seasons, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Lakes of the Four Seasons, 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 Lakes of the Four Seasons 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 Lakes of the Four Seasons — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lakes of the Four Seasons — the short answer
Lakes of the Four Seasons, Indiana: USDA zone 5b, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Lakes of the Four Seasons's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lakes of the Four Seasons's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lakes of the Four Seasons
Each reading below is measured for Lakes of the Four Seasons itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLakes of the Four Seasons runs about 207 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
MeasuredLakes of the Four Seasons 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 Lakes of the Four Seasons is in
Lakes of the Four Seasons sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lakes of the Four Seasons's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Lakes of the Four Seasons
Every plant below cleared Lakes of the Four Seasons's own zone 5b and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lakes of the Four Seasons?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 4 — 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 Lakes of the Four Seasons
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Lakes of the Four Seasons, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lakes of the Four Seasons
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lakes of the Four Seasons. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TWIN LAKES UTILITIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ATLANTIC PACIFIC LLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Lakes of the Four SeasonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PORTER LAKES ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Family Express 32Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WALGREENS #4829Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- MARATHON 2514Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Family Express 14Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Speedway 6689Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- AT & TUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 10824Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- PRESTIGE CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lakes of the Four Seasons'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 Lakes of the Four Seasons.
Total Sites
563
within ~10 miles of Lakes of the Four Seasons
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lakes of the Four Seasons
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lakes of the Four Seasons
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lakes of the Four Seasons, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Lakes of the Four Seasons. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Lakes of the Four Seasons
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 Lakes of the Four Seasons average
Your land is one point inside Lakes of the Four Seasons
Everything above resolves to Lakes of the Four Seasons as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Lakes of the Four Seasons Average
Lakes of the Four Seasons Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lakes of the Four Seasons
- ●One soil character for all of Lakes of the Four Seasons
- ●Frost dates read at Lakes of the Four Seasons's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lakes of the Four Seasons's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lakes of the Four Seasons
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lakes of the Four Seasons, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lakes of the Four Seasons averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lakes of the Four Seasons — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lakes of the Four Seasons average
How we know this about Lakes of the Four Seasons
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 Lakes of the Four Seasons’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 Lakes of the Four Seasons
When does frost risk typically end in Lakes of the Four Seasons?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lakes of the Four Seasons 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 Lakes of the Four Seasons?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lakes of the Four Seasons typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lakes of the Four Seasons?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lakes of the Four Seasons sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 21, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lakes of the Four Seasons?
The federal record around Lakes of the Four Seasons is a meaningful one — 563 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (315), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Lakes of the Four Seasons?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lakes of the Four Seasons's scale — its 5b band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lakes of the Four Seasons'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 Lakes of the Four Seasons’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lakes of the Four Seasons's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,458 acres it covers and 563 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lakes of the Four Seasons's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lakes of the Four Seasons's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 4 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 563 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lakes of the Four Seasons, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lakes of the Four Seasons's boundary and the 1,458 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lakes of the Four Seasons's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lakes of the Four Seasonslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lakes of the Four Seasons's 1,458 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lakes of the Four Seasons's 1,458 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lakes of the Four Seasons you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,458 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Lakes of the Four Seasons-wide figureread your own land →