Stilesville, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Stilesville, 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 Stilesville 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 Stilesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Stilesville — the short answer
Stilesville, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 239 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 239 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 Stilesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stilesville's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stilesville
Each reading below is measured for Stilesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStilesville runs about 209 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
MeasuredStilesville 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 Stilesville is in
Stilesville sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Stilesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hendricks County.
What Grows in Stilesville
Every plant below cleared Stilesville's own zone 6a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stilesville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Stilesville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Stilesville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 76 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stilesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stilesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RADER BODY SHOPBrownfields · 350 ft
- ROY HAMPTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- COOPERS OK HARDWARE WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Co Alliance LLP Stilesville AgronomyUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- NANCY C DAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- HEN HOUSE INTERSTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BUMGARDNERS AUTO & TRUCK SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ANDREW ROBARDS TRUSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- STILESVILLE IMPLEMENT AUCTION INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- JOSH JR SCOTTBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- USGS WELL COATSVILLE INDNitrate · 3.1 mi
- HENDRICKS 4 (HD 4)Nitrate · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stilesville'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 Stilesville.
Total Sites
98
within ~10 miles of Stilesville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stilesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stilesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stilesville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Stilesville — Underground Storage Tanks (61 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Stilesville
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 Stilesville average
Your land is one point inside Stilesville
Everything above resolves to Stilesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 239 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 Stilesville Average
Stilesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Stilesville
- ●One soil character for all of Stilesville
- ●Frost dates read at Stilesville's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stilesville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stilesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stilesville, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stilesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stilesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stilesville average
How we know this about Stilesville
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 Stilesville’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 Stilesville
When does frost risk typically end in Stilesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stilesville typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Stilesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stilesville typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stilesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stilesville sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 19, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stilesville?
The federal record around Stilesville is a meaningful one — 98 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Stilesville?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stilesville's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stilesville'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 Stilesville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stilesville's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 239 acres it covers and 98 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stilesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stilesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 2 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 98 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stilesville, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stilesville's boundary and the 239 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stilesville's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Stilesville 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 Stilesville's 239 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hendricks County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hendricks 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 Hendricks County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stilesville's 239 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stilesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 239 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Stilesville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaStilesville sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides