Mecca, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Mecca, 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 Mecca 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 Mecca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mecca — the short answer
Mecca, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 252 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 252 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 Mecca's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mecca's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mecca
Each reading below is measured for Mecca itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMecca runs about 211 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
MeasuredMecca 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 Mecca is in
Mecca sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mecca's own centroid rather than borrowed from Parke County.
What Grows in Mecca
Every plant below cleared Mecca's own zone 6a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mecca?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Mecca
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mecca checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 86 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mecca
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mecca. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LILLY PURCHASE POINTBrownfields · 350 ft
- ELANCO US INCORPORATED CLINTON LABORATOToxics Release Inventory · 3.4 mi
- Eli LillyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- CLINTON AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- SUPERIOR FOREST PRODUCTS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 4.1 mi
- OLD TOWN DUMPSuperfund · 4.2 mi
- COCA COLA BOTTLING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- PARKE WEST MATERIALSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- BILL BYBEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- TERRECORPToxics Release Inventory · 4.5 mi
- TERRECORPBrownfields · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mecca'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 Mecca.
Total Sites
147
within ~10 miles of Mecca
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mecca
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mecca
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mecca, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mecca — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Mecca
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 Mecca average
Your land is one point inside Mecca
Everything above resolves to Mecca as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 252 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 Mecca Average
Mecca Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mecca
- ●One soil character for all of Mecca
- ●Frost dates read at Mecca's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mecca's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mecca
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mecca, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mecca averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mecca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mecca average
How we know this about Mecca
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 Mecca’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 Mecca
When does frost risk typically end in Mecca?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mecca typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Mecca?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mecca typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mecca?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mecca sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 17, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mecca?
The federal record around Mecca is a meaningful one — 147 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (83), 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 Mecca?
From about Oct 1 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 Oct 31 (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 Oct 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mecca's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mecca'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 Mecca’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mecca's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 252 acres it covers and 147 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mecca's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mecca's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 31 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 147 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mecca, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mecca's boundary and the 252 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mecca's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mecca 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 Mecca's 252 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Parke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Parke 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 Parke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mecca's 252 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mecca you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 252 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 Mecca-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaMecca sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides