Milan, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Milan, 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 Milan 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 Milan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Milan — the short answer
Milan, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- 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
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6b is Milan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milan's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milan
Each reading below is measured for Milan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMilan 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
MeasuredMilan sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Milan is in
Milan sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Milan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ripley County.
What Grows in Milan
Every plant below cleared Milan's own zone 6b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Milan?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Milan
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Milan, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Milan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MILAN SUPER VALUUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- INDIANA TRAILS BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Ron Myers Tire & AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Kelly Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Caseys General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GTE NORTH INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- JAY C FOOD STORE #17Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- CHRIS VOLZ MOTORS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- K & K Mini Mart IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TOM TEPE AUTO CTRBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- BAYLOR TRUCKING INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Moores Hill Volunteer Fire DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Milan'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 Milan.
Total Sites
104
within ~10 miles of Milan
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Milan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Milan, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Milan — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (78 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Milan
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 Milan average
Your land is one point inside Milan
Everything above resolves to Milan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Milan Average
Milan Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Milan
- ●One soil character for all of Milan
- ●Frost dates read at Milan's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milan's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milan, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milan average
How we know this about Milan
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 Milan’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 Milan
When does frost risk typically end in Milan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milan typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Milan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milan 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 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Milan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milan sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 19, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Milan?
The federal record around Milan shows 104 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (78), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Milan?
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 Milan's scale — its 6b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milan'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 Milan’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Milan's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,274 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Milan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 2 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milan's boundary and the 1,274 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Milan's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Milanlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Milan's 1,274 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ripley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ripley 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 Ripley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Milan's 1,274 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,274 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Milan-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaMilan sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides