New Paris, 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 Paris, 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 Paris 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 Paris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Paris — the short answer
New Paris, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 995 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- 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
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 995 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 Paris's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Paris's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Paris
Each reading below is measured for New Paris itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Paris runs about 198 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
MeasuredNew Paris 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 Paris is in
New Paris sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Paris's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elkhart County.
What Grows in New Paris
Every plant below cleared New Paris's own zone 6a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Paris?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around New Paris
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from New Paris, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Paris
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Paris. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEW PARIS TELEPHONE INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NEW PARIS INDUSTRIES INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Larrys Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Smoker Craft IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SMOKERCRAFT SOUTHBrownfields · 1900 ft
- KNEPP SAND & STONE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SMOKER CRAFT INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- SMOKER CRAFT INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 2000 ft
- NEW PARIS STOP & GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MARTINS FEED MILLS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- EDDS SUPPLIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- RED D MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Paris'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 Paris.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Paris
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Paris
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Paris, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 93 sites within ~10 miles of New Paris. 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 New Paris
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 Paris average
Your land is one point inside New Paris
Everything above resolves to New Paris as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 995 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 Paris Average
New Paris Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across New Paris
- ●One soil character for all of New Paris
- ●Frost dates read at New Paris's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Paris's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Paris
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Paris, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Paris averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Paris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Paris average
How we know this about New Paris
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 Paris’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 Paris
When does frost risk typically end in New Paris?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Paris typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in New Paris?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Paris 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 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Paris?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Paris sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 14, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Paris?
The federal record around New Paris is a meaningful one — 579 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (291), 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 New Paris?
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 New Paris's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Paris'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 Paris’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Paris's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 995 acres it covers and 579 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Paris's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Paris's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 28 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 579 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Paris, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Paris's boundary and the 995 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Paris's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Parislydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Paris's 995 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 New Paris's 995 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Paris you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 995 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 New Paris-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaNew Paris sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides