Star City, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Star City, 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 Star City 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 Star City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Star City — the short answer
Star City, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 442 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 442 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 Star City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Star City's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Star City
Each reading below is measured for Star City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStar City runs about 202 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
MeasuredStar City 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 Star City is in
Star City sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Star City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pulaski County is mostly Central Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Star City
Every plant below cleared Star City's own zone 6a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Star City?
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 29 — 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 Star City
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Star City, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Star City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Star City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STAR CITY ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- JAKES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- FREDA A LLOYD FS SERVICE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ALAN BLENMAN CITY AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BISHOPS HOME APPLIANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- RALPHS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MCKINNEYS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- PULASKI WHITE RURAL TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MOYER GRAIN COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- VIGORO INDUSTRIES STAR CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- North Central Cooperative IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- DARL DAILY & SONS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Star City'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 Star City.
Total Sites
107
within ~10 miles of Star City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Star City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Star City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Star City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Star City — Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (76 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Star City
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 Star City average
Your land is one point inside Star City
Everything above resolves to Star City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 442 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 Star City Average
Star City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Star City
- ●One soil character for all of Star City
- ●Frost dates read at Star City's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Star City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Star City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Star City, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Star City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Star City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Star City average
How we know this about Star City
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 Star City’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 Star City
When does frost risk typically end in Star City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Star City 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 Star City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Star City typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Star City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Star City sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 15, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Star City?
The federal record around Star City shows 107 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Star City?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Star City's scale — its 6a band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Star City'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 Star City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Star City's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 442 acres it covers and 107 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Star City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Star City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 29 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 107 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Star City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Star City's boundary and the 442 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Star City sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Star Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Star City's 442 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pulaski County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pulaski 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 Pulaski County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Star City's 442 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Star City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 442 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Star City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaStar City sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides