Saugany Lake, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Saugany Lake, 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 Saugany Lake 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 Saugany Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Saugany Lake — the short answer
Saugany Lake, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 445 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 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 445 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 Saugany Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Saugany Lake's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Saugany Lake
Each reading below is measured for Saugany Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSaugany Lake runs about 213 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
MeasuredSaugany Lake 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 Saugany Lake is in
Saugany Lake sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Saugany Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from LaPorte County.
What Grows in Saugany Lake
Every plant below cleared Saugany Lake's own zone 6a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Saugany Lake?
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 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 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Saugany Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Saugany Lake, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Saugany Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Saugany Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT & T RADIO TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PYRAMID EQUIPMENT INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Travel Plaza 3 SouthUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- ITR Concession Company LLC Wilbur Shaw Travel PlazaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- NW-36 ROLLING PRAIRIE INNitrate · 2.0 mi
- SACRED HEART APOLSTOLIC SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- NEW PRAIRIE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- PHILLIP PARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- H R S INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- HUDSON LAKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- ROLLING PRAIRIE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- JUNCTION CITY RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Saugany Lake'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 Saugany Lake.
Total Sites
309
within ~10 miles of Saugany Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Saugany Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Saugany Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Saugany Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Saugany Lake — Toxics Release Inventory (37 sites) and Superfund (4 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 Saugany Lake
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 Saugany Lake average
Your land is one point inside Saugany Lake
Everything above resolves to Saugany Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 445 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 Saugany Lake Average
Saugany Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Saugany Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Saugany Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Saugany Lake's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Saugany Lake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Saugany Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Saugany Lake, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Saugany Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Saugany Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Saugany Lake average
How we know this about Saugany Lake
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 Saugany Lake’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 Saugany Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Saugany Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Saugany Lake 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 Saugany Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Saugany Lake typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Saugany Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Saugany Lake sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 25, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Saugany Lake?
The federal record around Saugany Lake is a meaningful one — 309 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (181), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Saugany Lake?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Saugany Lake's scale — its 6a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Saugany Lake'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 Saugany Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Saugany Lake's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 445 acres it covers and 309 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Saugany Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Saugany Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 8 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 309 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Saugany Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Saugany Lake's boundary and the 445 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Saugany Lake's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Saugany Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Saugany Lake's 445 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 Saugany Lake's 445 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Saugany Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 445 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Saugany Lake-wide figureread your own land →