Paoli, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Paoli, 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 Paoli 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 Paoli — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paoli — the short answer
Paoli, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6b is Paoli's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paoli's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paoli
Each reading below is measured for Paoli itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPaoli runs about 212 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
MeasuredPaoli sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Paoli is in
Paoli sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paoli's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Paoli
Every plant below cleared Paoli's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paoli?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Paoli
Survey cells within 31 miles of Paoli checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 83 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Paoli
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paoli. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PAOLI DAIRYLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Frontier CommunicationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- NORTHSIDE MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- PAOLI WATER DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Tobacco Road 179Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- N & N UPHOLSTERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- DENNIS GILLIATTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Riley Oil Company IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- DMA CORPORATION DBA DON NOLAN LIQUOR STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BAKER OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CONVENIENCE PLUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Ackerman OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paoli'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 Paoli.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Paoli
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paoli
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paoli
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paoli, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Paoli — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Paoli
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 Paoli average
Your land is one point inside Paoli
Everything above resolves to Paoli as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Paoli Average
Paoli Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Paoli
- ●One soil character for all of Paoli
- ●Frost dates read at Paoli's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paoli's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paoli
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paoli, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paoli averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paoli — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paoli average
How we know this about Paoli
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 Paoli’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 Paoli
When does frost risk typically end in Paoli?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paoli typically lands around Apr 4, 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 Apr 25.
When is the first frost in Paoli?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paoli typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paoli?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paoli sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 19, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paoli?
The federal record around Paoli shows 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Paoli?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paoli's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paoli'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 Paoli’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Paoli's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,393 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paoli's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paoli's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 2 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paoli, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paoli's boundary and the 2,393 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paoli's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Paoli checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Paoli's 2,393 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange 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 Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paoli's 2,393 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paoli you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,393 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 Paoli-wide figureread your own land →