Paragon, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Paragon, 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 Paragon 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 Paragon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paragon — the short answer
Paragon, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 176 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 176 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 Paragon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paragon's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paragon
Each reading below is measured for Paragon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredParagon runs about 196 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
MeasuredParagon 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 Paragon is in
Paragon sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paragon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morgan County.
What Grows in Paragon
Every plant below cleared Paragon's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paragon?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Paragon
Survey cells within 31 miles of Paragon checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 92 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Paragon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paragon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUCKS BAIT BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- JOYCE BEAMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Frabers FoodsUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MIDLAND COOPERATIVE INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- HUCKS BAIT & TACKLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- JOHNSON MORGAN CO GW STUDY MOR-68 24 FTNitrate · 0.7 mi
- JOHNSON MORGAN CO GW STUDY MOR-69 24 FT.Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- JOHNSON MORGAN CO GW STUDY MOR-73 24 FTNitrate · 1.4 mi
- JOHNSON MORGAN CO GW STUDY MOR-72 28 FTNitrate · 2.0 mi
- JOHNSON MORGAN CO GW STUDY OWN-1 34 FTNitrate · 4.1 mi
- CONTINENTAL BAKING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- JOHNSON MORGAN CO GW STUDY MOR-55 46 FTNitrate · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paragon'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 Paragon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paragon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paragon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paragon, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Paragon. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Paragon
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 Paragon average
Your land is one point inside Paragon
Everything above resolves to Paragon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 176 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 Paragon Average
Paragon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Paragon
- ●One soil character for all of Paragon
- ●Frost dates read at Paragon's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paragon's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paragon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paragon, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paragon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paragon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paragon average
How we know this about Paragon
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 Paragon’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 Paragon
When does frost risk typically end in Paragon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paragon 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 Paragon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paragon typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paragon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paragon sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 9, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paragon?
The federal record around Paragon is a meaningful one — 144 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), 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 Paragon?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paragon's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paragon'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 Paragon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Paragon's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 176 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paragon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paragon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 23 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paragon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paragon's boundary and the 176 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paragon's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Paragon 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 Paragon's 176 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morgan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morgan 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 Morgan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paragon's 176 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paragon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 176 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 Paragon-wide figureread your own land →