Ridgeville, 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.
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 Ridgeville, 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 Ridgeville 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 Ridgeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ridgeville — the short answer
Ridgeville, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 355 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 355 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 Ridgeville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ridgeville's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ridgeville
Each reading below is measured for Ridgeville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRidgeville runs about 198 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
MeasuredRidgeville 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 Ridgeville is in
Ridgeville sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ridgeville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Randolph County.
What Grows in Ridgeville
Every plant below cleared Ridgeville's own zone 6a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ridgeville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Ridgeville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ridgeville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 50 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ridgeville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ridgeville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- L & E AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- IN DOT RIDGEVILLE SUBDISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PAK A SAKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- THARPS MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CHAMPION HOME BUILDERS COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- US Aggregates Incorporated Quarry 754Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Dick LavyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- RONALD J CHALFANT FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- BLUFF POINT WIND ENERGY CENTERBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- IDEM PESTICIDE SURVEY WELL 463Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- T21NR12E23SESENE LNitrate · 6.7 mi
- RANDOLPH 3 (RA 3)Nitrate · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ridgeville'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 Ridgeville.
Total Sites
117
within ~10 miles of Ridgeville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ridgeville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ridgeville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ridgeville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ridgeville — Superfund (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (17 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Ridgeville
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 Ridgeville average
Your land is one point inside Ridgeville
Everything above resolves to Ridgeville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 355 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 Ridgeville Average
Ridgeville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ridgeville
- ●One soil character for all of Ridgeville
- ●Frost dates read at Ridgeville's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ridgeville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ridgeville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ridgeville, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ridgeville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ridgeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ridgeville average
How we know this about Ridgeville
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 Ridgeville’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 Ridgeville
When does frost risk typically end in Ridgeville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ridgeville typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Ridgeville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ridgeville typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ridgeville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ridgeville sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 12, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ridgeville?
The federal record around Ridgeville is a meaningful one — 117 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ridgeville?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ridgeville's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ridgeville'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 Ridgeville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ridgeville's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 355 acres it covers and 117 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ridgeville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ridgeville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 26 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 117 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ridgeville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ridgeville's boundary and the 355 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ridgeville's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ridgeville 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 Ridgeville's 355 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Randolph County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Randolph 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 Randolph County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ridgeville's 355 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ridgeville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 355 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ridgeville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaRidgeville sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides