Markle, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Markle, 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 Markle 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 Markle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Markle — the short answer
Markle, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 929 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 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 929 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 Markle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Markle's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Markle
Each reading below is measured for Markle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarkle runs about 204 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
MeasuredMarkle 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 Markle is in
Markle sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Markle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Huntington County.
What Grows in Markle
Every plant below cleared Markle's own zone 6a and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Markle?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 1 — 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 Markle
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Markle, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Markle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Markle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOSHEE BODY AND TOW COBrownfields · 350 ft
- IN DOT Bluffton Subdistrict Markle UnitUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- ALL SEASON IND INCToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- CROSSROADS PANTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Markle Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Frontier CommunicationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WARREN COMMERCIAL POLISHINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Markle 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WelchesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- One Stop PetroUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MARKLE TOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Helena Chemical CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Markle'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 Markle.
Total Sites
237
within ~10 miles of Markle
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Markle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Markle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Markle, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 31 sites within ~10 miles of Markle. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Markle
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 Markle average
Your land is one point inside Markle
Everything above resolves to Markle as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 929 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 Markle Average
Markle Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Markle
- ●One soil character for all of Markle
- ●Frost dates read at Markle's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Markle's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Markle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Markle, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Markle averages can't show:
We read public map data around Markle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Markle average
How we know this about Markle
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 Markle’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 Markle
When does frost risk typically end in Markle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Markle 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 Markle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Markle 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 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Markle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Markle sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 18, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Markle?
The federal record around Markle is a meaningful one — 237 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Markle?
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 Markle's scale — its 6a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Markle'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 Markle’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Markle's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 929 acres it covers and 237 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Markle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Markle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 1 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 237 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Markle, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Markle's boundary and the 929 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Markle's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Marklelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Markle's 929 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Huntington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Huntington 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 Huntington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Markle's 929 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Markle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 929 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Markle-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaMarkle sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides