Ragsdale, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Ragsdale, 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 Ragsdale 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 Ragsdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ragsdale — the short answer
Ragsdale, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 574 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 574 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 Ragsdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ragsdale's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ragsdale
Each reading below is measured for Ragsdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRagsdale runs about 219 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
MeasuredRagsdale 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 Ragsdale is in
Ragsdale sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ragsdale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Knox County.
What Grows in Ragsdale
Every plant below cleared Ragsdale's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ragsdale?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Ragsdale
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ragsdale checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 128 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ragsdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ragsdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DILLON TRUCKING INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- KNOX MINEToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- SCEPTER INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- SCEPTER INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- WILKIES SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- D & B CAR CARE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Caseys General Store 1915Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- DOWNTOWN MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- BICKNELL MUNICIPAL UTILITIESPFAS · 2.3 mi
- HARTLAND SHOPWORTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- OLD MARATHON GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- EXHAUST SPECIALTY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ragsdale'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 Ragsdale.
Total Sites
104
within ~10 miles of Ragsdale
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ragsdale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ragsdale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ragsdale, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Ragsdale. 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 Ragsdale
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 Ragsdale average
Your land is one point inside Ragsdale
Everything above resolves to Ragsdale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 574 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 Ragsdale Average
Ragsdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ragsdale
- ●One soil character for all of Ragsdale
- ●Frost dates read at Ragsdale's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ragsdale's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ragsdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ragsdale, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ragsdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ragsdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ragsdale average
How we know this about Ragsdale
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 Ragsdale’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 Ragsdale
When does frost risk typically end in Ragsdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ragsdale typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Ragsdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ragsdale typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ragsdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ragsdale sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 22, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ragsdale?
The federal record around Ragsdale is a meaningful one — 104 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.2 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 Ragsdale?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ragsdale's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ragsdale'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 Ragsdale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ragsdale's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 574 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ragsdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ragsdale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 5 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ragsdale, the closest Brownfields record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ragsdale's boundary and the 574 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ragsdale's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ragsdale 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 Ragsdale's 574 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ragsdale's 574 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ragsdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 574 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.2 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 Ragsdale-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaRagsdale sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides