Leesburg, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Leesburg, 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 Leesburg 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 Leesburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Leesburg — the short answer
Leesburg, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 164 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 164 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 Leesburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leesburg's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leesburg
Each reading below is measured for Leesburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeesburg runs about 203 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
MeasuredLeesburg 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 Leesburg is in
Leesburg sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leesburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kosciusko County.
What Grows in Leesburg
Every plant below cleared Leesburg's own zone 6a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leesburg?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Leesburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Leesburg, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Leesburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leesburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALLEN K HAYESUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- SPRINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- LEESBURG LUMBER INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- LEESBURG GRAIN ELEVATOR INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- GTI CORP CIRCUITS DIVBrownfields · 1200 ft
- GTI CORP CIRCUITS DIVToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- COMPOSITE DESIGNS INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- COMPOSITES DESIGNS INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- Freedom Express 6Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TIPPECANOE BOAT COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Katies Kwik ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TUSING BROTHERS LUMBER COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leesburg'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 Leesburg.
Total Sites
436
within ~10 miles of Leesburg
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leesburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leesburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leesburg, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Leesburg. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Leesburg
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 Leesburg average
Your land is one point inside Leesburg
Everything above resolves to Leesburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 164 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 Leesburg Average
Leesburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Leesburg
- ●One soil character for all of Leesburg
- ●Frost dates read at Leesburg's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leesburg's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leesburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leesburg, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leesburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leesburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leesburg average
How we know this about Leesburg
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 Leesburg’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 Leesburg
When does frost risk typically end in Leesburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leesburg typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Leesburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leesburg typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leesburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leesburg sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 18, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leesburg?
The federal record around Leesburg is a meaningful one — 436 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (241), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Leesburg?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leesburg's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leesburg'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 Leesburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Leesburg's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 164 acres it covers and 436 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leesburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leesburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 1 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 436 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leesburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leesburg's boundary and the 164 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leesburg's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Leesburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leesburg's 164 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kosciusko County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kosciusko 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 Kosciusko County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leesburg's 164 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leesburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 164 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 Leesburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaLeesburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides