Monon, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Monon, 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 Monon 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 Monon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Monon — the short answer
Monon, Indiana: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 566 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 566 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 5b is Monon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Monon's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Monon
Each reading below is measured for Monon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMonon runs about 201 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
MeasuredMonon sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Monon is in
Monon sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Monon's own centroid rather than borrowed from White County.
What Grows in Monon
Every plant below cleared Monon's own zone 5b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Monon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Monon
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Monon, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Monon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Monon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Family Express 45Underground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- MONON CITY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- DYE LUMBER INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SWYGMANS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MILESTONE CONTRACTORSBrownfields · 950 ft
- MONON SUNOCO SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- GUTWEIN MOTOR CO INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- TRI COUNTY AGRICULTURE SERVICE INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- IN DOT INTERSECTION IMPROVEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MONON RADIO TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HOWARD & SONS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Caseys General Store 3470Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Monon'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 Monon.
Total Sites
140
within ~10 miles of Monon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Monon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Monon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Monon, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Monon. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Monon
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 Monon average
Your land is one point inside Monon
Everything above resolves to Monon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 566 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 Monon Average
Monon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Monon
- ●One soil character for all of Monon
- ●Frost dates read at Monon's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Monon's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Monon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Monon, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Monon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Monon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monon average
How we know this about Monon
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 Monon’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 Monon
When does frost risk typically end in Monon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Monon typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Monon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Monon typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Monon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Monon sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 14, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Monon?
The federal record around Monon is a meaningful one — 140 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Monon?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Monon's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Monon'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 Monon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Monon's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 566 acres it covers and 140 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Monon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Monon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 28 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 140 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Monon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Monon's boundary and the 566 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Monon's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mononlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Monon's 566 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom White County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom White 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 White County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Monon's 566 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Monon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 566 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Monon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaMonon sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides