Scotland, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Scotland, 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 Scotland 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 Scotland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Scotland — the short answer
Scotland, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 369 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 369 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 Scotland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scotland's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scotland
Each reading below is measured for Scotland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredScotland runs about 214 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
MeasuredScotland 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 Scotland is in
Scotland sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Scotland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greene County.
What Grows in Scotland
Every plant below cleared Scotland's own zone 6b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scotland?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Scotland
Survey cells within 31 miles of Scotland checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 106 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Scotland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scotland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NHANCED SEMICONDUCTORSBrownfields · 2400 ft
- BATTERY INNOVATION CENTERBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- HASLERS JUNCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TOODIES CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ODON SERVICE INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BOYLE TF TRANSPORTATION INC INBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- INDOT BLOOMFIELD UNIT 661 02Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- IN DOT BLOOMFIELD UNIT 661 02Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- VERIZON NORTH INCORPORATED GTE NORTH INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CRANE 76 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane DivisionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WC-64 SCOTLAND, IND.Nitrate · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scotland'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 Scotland.
Total Sites
101
within ~10 miles of Scotland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scotland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scotland
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Scotland
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 Scotland average
Your land is one point inside Scotland
Everything above resolves to Scotland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 369 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 Scotland Average
Scotland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Scotland
- ●One soil character for all of Scotland
- ●Frost dates read at Scotland's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scotland's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scotland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scotland, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scotland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scotland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scotland average
How we know this about Scotland
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 Scotland’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 Scotland
When does frost risk typically end in Scotland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scotland typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Scotland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scotland typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scotland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scotland sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 20, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scotland?
The federal record around Scotland is a meaningful one — 101 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (52), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Scotland?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Scotland's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scotland'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 Scotland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Scotland's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 369 acres it covers and 101 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scotland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scotland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 3 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 101 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scotland, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scotland's boundary and the 369 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scotland's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Scotland 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 Scotland's 369 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greene County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greene 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 Greene County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scotland's 369 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scotland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 369 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Scotland-wide figureread your own land →
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