South Haven, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in South Haven, 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 South Haven 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 South Haven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
South Haven — the short answer
South Haven, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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
- 1K 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 South Haven's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Haven's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Haven
Each reading below is measured for South Haven itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Haven 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
MeasuredSouth Haven 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 South Haven is in
South Haven sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at South Haven's own centroid rather than borrowed from Porter County.
What Grows in South Haven
Every plant below cleared South Haven'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 South Haven?
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 South Haven
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from South Haven, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near South Haven
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Haven. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- South Haven Sewer WorksUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CLARK OIL STATION 1052Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- American GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- QUICK AUTO SOUTH HAVENUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- THOMAS HONDA & KAWASAKIUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Family Express 4Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- RIETH-RILEY CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, INC.Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- SOUTH HAVEN MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Rieth Riley Valpo Asphalt PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CLARK OIL STATION 1052Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- Speedway 7524Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CHECKER UNIT NO 7524Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Haven'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 South Haven.
Total Sites
1,094
within ~10 miles of South Haven
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Haven
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Haven
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Haven, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 70 sites within ~10 miles of South Haven. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 South Haven
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 South Haven average
Your land is one point inside South Haven
Everything above resolves to South Haven as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 South Haven Average
South Haven Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across South Haven
- ●One soil character for all of South Haven
- ●Frost dates read at South Haven's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Haven's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Haven
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Haven, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Haven averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Haven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Haven average
How we know this about South Haven
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 South Haven’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 South Haven
When does frost risk typically end in South Haven?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Haven 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 South Haven?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Haven 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 South Haven?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Haven 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 South Haven?
The federal record around South Haven is a meaningful one — 1,094 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (544), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 South Haven?
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 South Haven's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Haven'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 South Haven’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at South Haven's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,454 acres it covers and 1,094 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Haven's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Haven's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 7 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,094 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Haven, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Haven's boundary and the 1,454 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 South Haven's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of South Havenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Haven's 1,454 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Porter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Porter 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 Porter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Haven's 1,454 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Haven you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,454 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 South Haven-wide figureread your own land →