Middlebury, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Middlebury, 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 Middlebury 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 Middlebury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Middlebury — the short answer
Middlebury, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- 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
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Middlebury's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Middlebury's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Middlebury
Each reading below is measured for Middlebury itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMiddlebury runs about 200 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
MeasuredMiddlebury 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 Middlebury is in
Middlebury sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Middlebury's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elkhart County.
What Grows in Middlebury
Every plant below cleared Middlebury's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Middlebury?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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 Middlebury
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Middlebury, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Middlebury
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Middlebury. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASUAL CUTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DIRKS CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MIDDLEBURY FEED SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- IN DOT INDIANA TOLL ROAD SERVICE AREA 6 NORTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- IN DOT INDIANA TOLL ROAD SERVICE AREA 6 SOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- JERRYS STANDARD SERVICEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Yoder Oil Company IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MIDDIE MART - PAK A SAKSuperfund · 1900 ft
- Jerrys Standard ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Pak a Sak 41Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- VerizonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MAX MYERS MOTORS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Middlebury'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 Middlebury.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Middlebury
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Middlebury
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Middlebury, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 114 sites within ~10 miles of Middlebury. 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 Middlebury
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 Middlebury average
Your land is one point inside Middlebury
Everything above resolves to Middlebury as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Middlebury Average
Middlebury Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Middlebury
- ●One soil character for all of Middlebury
- ●Frost dates read at Middlebury's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Middlebury's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Middlebury
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Middlebury, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Middlebury averages can't show:
We read public map data around Middlebury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Middlebury average
How we know this about Middlebury
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 Middlebury’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 Middlebury
When does frost risk typically end in Middlebury?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Middlebury typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Middlebury?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Middlebury 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 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Middlebury?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Middlebury sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 18, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Middlebury?
The federal record around Middlebury is a meaningful one — 638 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (273), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Middlebury?
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 Middlebury's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Middlebury'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 Middlebury’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Middlebury's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,934 acres it covers and 638 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Middlebury's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Middlebury's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 1 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 638 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Middlebury, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Middlebury's boundary and the 2,934 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Middlebury's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Middleburylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Middlebury's 2,934 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elkhart County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elkhart 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 Elkhart County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Middlebury's 2,934 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Middlebury you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,934 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Middlebury-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaMiddlebury sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides