Rolling Prairie, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Rolling Prairie, 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 Rolling Prairie 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 Rolling Prairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rolling Prairie — the short answer
Rolling Prairie, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 676 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 676 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 Rolling Prairie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rolling Prairie's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rolling Prairie
Each reading below is measured for Rolling Prairie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRolling Prairie 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
MeasuredRolling Prairie 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 Rolling Prairie is in
Rolling Prairie sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rolling Prairie's own centroid rather than borrowed from LaPorte County.
What Grows in Rolling Prairie
Every plant below cleared Rolling Prairie's own zone 6a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rolling Prairie?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Rolling Prairie
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Rolling Prairie, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rolling Prairie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rolling Prairie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUNTS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- ERVIN SCHROEDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Family Express CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ROLLING MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GRIMM MOLD & DIE COMPANY INCOBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ROLLING PRAIRIE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- OTECH CORPORATIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- INTERNATIONAL WIRE WIREKRAFTToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- DONALD GRIMM PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- JUNCTION CITY RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- SACRED HEART APOLSTOLIC SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- NW-36 ROLLING PRAIRIE INNitrate · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rolling Prairie'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 Rolling Prairie.
Total Sites
344
within ~10 miles of Rolling Prairie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rolling Prairie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rolling Prairie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rolling Prairie, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rolling Prairie — Toxics Release Inventory (39 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Rolling Prairie
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 Rolling Prairie average
Your land is one point inside Rolling Prairie
Everything above resolves to Rolling Prairie as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 676 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 Rolling Prairie Average
Rolling Prairie Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rolling Prairie
- ●One soil character for all of Rolling Prairie
- ●Frost dates read at Rolling Prairie's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rolling Prairie's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rolling Prairie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rolling Prairie, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rolling Prairie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rolling Prairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rolling Prairie average
How we know this about Rolling Prairie
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 Rolling Prairie’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 Rolling Prairie
When does frost risk typically end in Rolling Prairie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rolling Prairie typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Rolling Prairie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rolling Prairie typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rolling Prairie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rolling Prairie sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 24, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rolling Prairie?
The federal record around Rolling Prairie is a meaningful one — 344 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (200), 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 Rolling Prairie?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rolling Prairie's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rolling Prairie'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 Rolling Prairie’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rolling Prairie's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 676 acres it covers and 344 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rolling Prairie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rolling Prairie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 7 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 344 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rolling Prairie, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rolling Prairie's boundary and the 676 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rolling Prairie's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Rolling Prairielydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rolling Prairie's 676 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom LaPorte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom LaPorte 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 LaPorte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rolling Prairie's 676 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rolling Prairie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 676 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 Rolling Prairie-wide figureread your own land →