Peppertown, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Peppertown, 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 Peppertown 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 Peppertown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Peppertown — the short answer
Peppertown, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 267 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- 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
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 267 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 Peppertown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peppertown's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Peppertown
Each reading below is measured for Peppertown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPeppertown runs about 211 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
MeasuredPeppertown 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 Peppertown is in
Peppertown sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Peppertown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Peppertown
Every plant below cleared Peppertown's own zone 6a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Peppertown?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Peppertown
Survey cells within 31 miles of Peppertown checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Peppertown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Peppertown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAMBURG TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- SISTERS OF SAINT FRANCISUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- DNR WHITEWATER CANAL STATE HISTORIC SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- PAVEYS ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- HAVE A BITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- PAVEY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- OBERMEYER MARATHON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- HOLY FAMILY CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- METAMORA MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- HILL-ROM INC RITTER PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 4.3 mi
- Roman Nobbe IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Batesville Aviation Services LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Peppertown'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 Peppertown.
Total Sites
137
within ~10 miles of Peppertown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Peppertown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Peppertown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Peppertown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Peppertown — Superfund (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Peppertown
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 Peppertown average
Your land is one point inside Peppertown
Everything above resolves to Peppertown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 267 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 Peppertown Average
Peppertown Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Peppertown
- ●One soil character for all of Peppertown
- ●Frost dates read at Peppertown's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peppertown's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Peppertown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peppertown, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peppertown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peppertown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peppertown average
How we know this about Peppertown
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 Peppertown’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 Peppertown
When does frost risk typically end in Peppertown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peppertown typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Peppertown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Peppertown 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 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Peppertown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peppertown sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 19, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peppertown?
The federal record around Peppertown is a meaningful one — 137 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.0 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 Peppertown?
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 Peppertown's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peppertown'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 Peppertown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Peppertown's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 267 acres it covers and 137 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peppertown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Peppertown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 2 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 137 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Peppertown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Peppertown's boundary and the 267 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Peppertown's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Peppertown 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 Peppertown's 267 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Peppertown's 267 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Peppertown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 267 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.0 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 Peppertown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaPeppertown sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides