Mongo, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mongo, 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 Mongo 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 Mongo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mongo — the short answer
Mongo, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 249 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)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 249 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 Mongo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mongo's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mongo
Each reading below is measured for Mongo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMongo runs about 197 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMongo 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 Mongo is in
Mongo sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mongo's own centroid rather than borrowed from LaGrange County.
What Grows in Mongo
Every plant below cleared Mongo's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mongo?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Mongo
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Mongo, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mongo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mongo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEISS TRUCKING COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Town & Country MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PIGEON RIVER FISH & WILDLIFE AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- K & E AUTO CENTER INCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- VLASIC FARMS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- TROYER DAIRY FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- IN DNR Curtis CreekUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- AGRIPRO BIOSCIENCES INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Lagrange Radio TowerUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- USGS WELL HOWE 1 NR HOWE,IN.Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- PRAIRIE HEIGHTS COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- ITR Concession Company LLC Gene Stratton Porter Travel PlazaUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mongo'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 Mongo.
Total Sites
146
within ~10 miles of Mongo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mongo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mongo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mongo, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Mongo. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Mongo
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 Mongo average
Your land is one point inside Mongo
Everything above resolves to Mongo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 249 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 Mongo Average
Mongo Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mongo
- ●One soil character for all of Mongo
- ●Frost dates read at Mongo's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mongo's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mongo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mongo, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mongo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mongo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mongo average
How we know this about Mongo
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 Mongo’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 Mongo
When does frost risk typically end in Mongo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mongo 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 Mongo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mongo typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mongo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mongo sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 15, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mongo?
The federal record around Mongo is a meaningful one — 146 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Mongo?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mongo's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mongo'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 Mongo’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mongo's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 249 acres it covers and 146 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mongo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mongo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 29 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 146 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mongo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mongo's boundary and the 249 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mongo's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mongolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mongo's 249 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom LaGrange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom LaGrange 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 LaGrange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mongo's 249 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mongo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 249 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Mongo-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaMongo sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides