New Carlisle, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in New Carlisle, 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 New Carlisle 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 New Carlisle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Carlisle — the short answer
New Carlisle, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- 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 6a is New Carlisle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Carlisle's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Carlisle
Each reading below is measured for New Carlisle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Carlisle runs about 206 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
MeasuredNew Carlisle 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 New Carlisle is in
New Carlisle sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Carlisle's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Joseph County.
What Grows in New Carlisle
Every plant below cleared New Carlisle's own zone 6a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Carlisle?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 New Carlisle
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from New Carlisle, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Carlisle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Carlisle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JACKS BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CARRIS REELS INDIANA INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SPRINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- GAROUTTES MARATHON AUTO & TRUCK SERVICE STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- NEW CARLISLE WASTE WATER TREATMENT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- NEW PRAIRIE BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MILLERS MERRY MANORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- OLIVE TOWNSHIP ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ANIMAL BY PRODUCTS CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 6486Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- BEST CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Carlisle'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 New Carlisle.
Total Sites
207
within ~10 miles of New Carlisle
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Carlisle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Carlisle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Carlisle, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of New Carlisle. 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 New Carlisle
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 New Carlisle average
Your land is one point inside New Carlisle
Everything above resolves to New Carlisle 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 New Carlisle Average
New Carlisle Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across New Carlisle
- ●One soil character for all of New Carlisle
- ●Frost dates read at New Carlisle's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Carlisle's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Carlisle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Carlisle, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Carlisle averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Carlisle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Carlisle average
How we know this about New Carlisle
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 New Carlisle’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 New Carlisle
When does frost risk typically end in New Carlisle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Carlisle typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in New Carlisle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Carlisle typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Carlisle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Carlisle sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 21, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Carlisle?
The federal record around New Carlisle is a meaningful one — 207 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (118), 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 New Carlisle?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Carlisle's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Carlisle'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 New Carlisle’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Carlisle's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,299 acres it covers and 207 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Carlisle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Carlisle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 4 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 207 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Carlisle, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Carlisle's boundary and the 1,299 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Carlisle's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Carlislelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Carlisle's 1,299 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Joseph County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Joseph 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 St. Joseph County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Carlisle's 1,299 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Carlisle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,299 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 New Carlisle-wide figureread your own land →