Town of Pines, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Town of Pines, 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 Town of Pines 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 Town of Pines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Town of Pines — the short answer
Town of Pines, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- 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 Town of Pines's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Town of Pines's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Town of Pines
Each reading below is measured for Town of Pines itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTown of Pines runs about 226 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
MeasuredTown of Pines 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 Town of Pines is in
Town of Pines sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Town of Pines's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Porter County is mostly Central Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Town of Pines
Every plant below cleared Town of Pines's own zone 6a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Town of Pines?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Town of Pines
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Town of Pines, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Town of Pines
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Town of Pines. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DUNES HWY MI CITY PB SITESuperfund · 450 ft
- MANLEY BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WR & DW NEWMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- VIRKS NEW MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PUMPS ON 12Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- USGS DUNES WELL GM-29 7 FTNitrate · 0.5 mi
- ILLIANA BLOCK & BRICK INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TOWN OF PINES GROUNDWATER PLUMESuperfund · 0.6 mi
- USGS DUNES WELL 216 49 FTNitrate · 0.6 mi
- USGS DUNES WELL 216G 11 FTNitrate · 0.6 mi
- USGS DUNES WELL GM-30 16 FTNitrate · 0.6 mi
- JERRYS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Town of Pines'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 Town of Pines.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Town of Pines
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Town of Pines
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Town of Pines, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Town of Pines — Superfund (12 sites) and Nitrate (230 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Town of Pines
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 Town of Pines average
Your land is one point inside Town of Pines
Everything above resolves to Town of Pines 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 Town of Pines Average
Town of Pines Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Town of Pines
- ●One soil character for all of Town of Pines
- ●Frost dates read at Town of Pines's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Town of Pines's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Town of Pines
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Town of Pines, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Town of Pines averages can't show:
We read public map data around Town of Pines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Town of Pines average
How we know this about Town of Pines
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 Town of Pines’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 Town of Pines
When does frost risk typically end in Town of Pines?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Town of Pines typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Town of Pines?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Town of Pines typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Town of Pines?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Town of Pines sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Nov 2, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Town of Pines?
The federal record around Town of Pines is a meaningful one — 638 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (240), the nearest Superfund 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 Town of Pines?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Town of Pines's scale — its 6a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Town of Pines'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 Town of Pines’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Town of Pines's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,443 acres it covers and 638 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Town of Pines's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Town of Pines's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 16 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 638 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Town of Pines, the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Town of Pines's boundary and the 1,443 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Town of Pines 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 Town of Pineslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Town of Pines's 1,443 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 Town of Pines's 1,443 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Town of Pines you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,443 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Town of Pines-wide figureread your own land →