Spiceland, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Spiceland, 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 Spiceland 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 Spiceland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Spiceland — the short answer
Spiceland, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 933 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 933 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 Spiceland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spiceland's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spiceland
Each reading below is measured for Spiceland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpiceland 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
MeasuredSpiceland 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 Spiceland is in
Spiceland sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spiceland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henry County.
What Grows in Spiceland
Every plant below cleared Spiceland'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 Spiceland?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Spiceland
Survey cells within 31 miles of Spiceland checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 64 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Spiceland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spiceland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AMERICAN BOTTLING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Wyatts CarpetUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- KIEL BROTHERS OIL COMPANY C121Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Mr Fuel 8Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SPICELAND MARATHON 257Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Moes Auto SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Caseys General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FLYING J TRAVEL PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DRAPER SHAD & SCREENToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- B & B PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SPEEDWAY NO 5229Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spiceland'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 Spiceland.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spiceland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spiceland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spiceland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Spiceland — Superfund (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (153 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Spiceland
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 Spiceland average
Your land is one point inside Spiceland
Everything above resolves to Spiceland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 933 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 Spiceland Average
Spiceland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Spiceland
- ●One soil character for all of Spiceland
- ●Frost dates read at Spiceland's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spiceland's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spiceland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spiceland, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spiceland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spiceland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spiceland average
How we know this about Spiceland
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 Spiceland’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 Spiceland
When does frost risk typically end in Spiceland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spiceland typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Spiceland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spiceland typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spiceland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spiceland sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 11, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spiceland?
The federal record around Spiceland is a meaningful one — 214 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (153), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Spiceland?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spiceland's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spiceland'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 Spiceland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Spiceland's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 933 acres it covers and 214 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spiceland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spiceland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 25 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 214 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spiceland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spiceland's boundary and the 933 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 Spiceland's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Spiceland 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 Spiceland's 933 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henry 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 Henry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spiceland's 933 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spiceland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 933 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Spiceland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaSpiceland sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides