North Webster, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in North Webster, 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 North Webster 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 North Webster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
North Webster — the short answer
North Webster, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 518 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 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 518 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 North Webster's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Webster's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Webster
Each reading below is measured for North Webster itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Webster 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
MeasuredNorth Webster 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 North Webster is in
North Webster sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Webster's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kosciusko County.
What Grows in North Webster
Every plant below cleared North Webster's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Webster?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 31 — 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 North Webster
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from North Webster, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Webster
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Webster. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JACKSON OIL AND SOLVENTSToxics Release Inventory · 650 ft
- SHELL DEALER NORTH WEBSTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PAULUS PUMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 6503Brownfields · 1000 ft
- RST PROPERTIES INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CHAIN OF LAKES MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NORTH WEBSTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- White Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- NORTH WEBSTER SEPTIC SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- STURONJAC QUALITY BUILDERS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WHITE AMOCO SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Freedom Express 4Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Webster'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 North Webster.
Total Sites
362
within ~10 miles of North Webster
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Webster
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Webster
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Webster, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of North Webster. 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 North Webster
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 North Webster average
Your land is one point inside North Webster
Everything above resolves to North Webster as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 518 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 North Webster Average
North Webster Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across North Webster
- ●One soil character for all of North Webster
- ●Frost dates read at North Webster's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Webster's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Webster
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Webster, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Webster averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Webster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Webster average
How we know this about North Webster
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 North Webster’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 North Webster
When does frost risk typically end in North Webster?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Webster 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 North Webster?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Webster typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Webster?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Webster sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 17, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Webster?
The federal record around North Webster is a meaningful one — 362 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (211), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 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 North Webster?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Webster's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Webster'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 North Webster’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Webster's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 518 acres it covers and 362 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Webster's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Webster's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 31 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 362 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Webster, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Webster's boundary and the 518 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Webster's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Websterlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Webster's 518 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kosciusko County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kosciusko 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 Kosciusko County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Webster's 518 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Webster you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 518 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 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 North Webster-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaNorth Webster sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides