Lewis, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Lewis, 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 Lewis 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 Lewis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lewis — the short answer
Lewis, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 173 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- 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
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 173 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 Lewis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lewis's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lewis
Each reading below is measured for Lewis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLewis runs about 214 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
MeasuredLewis 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 Lewis is in
Lewis sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lewis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Vigo County.
What Grows in Lewis
Every plant below cleared Lewis's own zone 6a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lewis?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Lewis
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lewis checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 112 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lewis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lewis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WC-20 LEWIS, IND.Nitrate · 1000 ft
- PILANTS COUNTRY CLEANINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- T10N R8W S35 SESWNE LEWIS, INNitrate · 0.7 mi
- WC-75 LEWIS, IND.Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- REDDI MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- LEWIS PREPARATION PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- T10N R8W S24 SWNESE NR SALINE CITY, INNitrate · 2.3 mi
- T10N R8W S33 SWSESE NR LEWIS, INNitrate · 2.4 mi
- T10N R8W S22 SESWSE NR LEWIS, INNitrate · 2.5 mi
- NAWQA AG WELL GL11 NEAR LEWIS, INNitrate · 2.6 mi
- WC-33 COALMONT, IND.Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- RAYS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lewis'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 Lewis.
Total Sites
177
within ~10 miles of Lewis
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lewis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lewis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lewis, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 96 sites within ~10 miles of Lewis. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lewis
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 Lewis average
Your land is one point inside Lewis
Everything above resolves to Lewis as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 173 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 Lewis Average
Lewis Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lewis
- ●One soil character for all of Lewis
- ●Frost dates read at Lewis's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lewis's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lewis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lewis, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lewis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lewis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lewis average
How we know this about Lewis
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 Lewis’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 Lewis
When does frost risk typically end in Lewis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lewis typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Lewis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lewis 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 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lewis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lewis sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 19, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lewis?
The federal record around Lewis is a meaningful one — 177 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (96), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Lewis?
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 Lewis's scale — its 6a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lewis'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 Lewis’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lewis's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 173 acres it covers and 177 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lewis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lewis's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 2 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 177 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lewis, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lewis's boundary and the 173 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lewis's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lewis checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lewis's 173 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vigo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vigo 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 Vigo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lewis's 173 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lewis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 173 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Lewis-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaLewis sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides