Van Bibber Lake, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Van Bibber Lake, 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 Van Bibber Lake 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 Van Bibber Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Van Bibber Lake — the short answer
Van Bibber Lake, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 165 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- 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
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 165 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 Van Bibber Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Van Bibber Lake's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Van Bibber Lake
Each reading below is measured for Van Bibber Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVan Bibber Lake runs about 204 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
MeasuredVan Bibber Lake 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 Van Bibber Lake is in
Van Bibber Lake sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Van Bibber Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Putnam County is mostly Eastern Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Van Bibber Lake
Every plant below cleared Van Bibber Lake's own zone 6a and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Van Bibber Lake?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Van Bibber Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Van Bibber Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 75 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Van Bibber Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Van Bibber Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VAN BIBBER LAKE CONSERVANCY DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- NAWQA AG WELL TP15 AT MORTON, INNitrate · 1.7 mi
- WC-66 MORTON, IND.Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- LIBKAS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- BRIAN'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- ROBERT HYTINUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- INDOT BAINBRIDGE UNITBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- PAUL MURPHYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Bainbridge AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- IN5267004 PUTNAM 01954 PRODUCTION WELL 7Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- GREENCASTLE DEPARTMENT OF WATERPFAS · 5.5 mi
- REECE OIL COMPANY INCORPORATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Van Bibber Lake'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 Van Bibber Lake.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of Van Bibber Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Van Bibber Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Van Bibber Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Van Bibber Lake, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Van Bibber Lake. 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 Van Bibber Lake
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 Van Bibber Lake average
Your land is one point inside Van Bibber Lake
Everything above resolves to Van Bibber Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 165 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 Van Bibber Lake Average
Van Bibber Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Van Bibber Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Van Bibber Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Van Bibber Lake's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Van Bibber Lake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Van Bibber Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Van Bibber Lake, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Van Bibber Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Van Bibber Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Van Bibber Lake average
How we know this about Van Bibber Lake
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 Van Bibber Lake’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 Van Bibber Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Van Bibber Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Van Bibber Lake typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Van Bibber Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Van Bibber Lake 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 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Van Bibber Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Van Bibber Lake sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 15, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Van Bibber Lake?
The federal record around Van Bibber Lake shows 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles 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 Van Bibber Lake?
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 Van Bibber Lake's scale — its 6a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Van Bibber Lake'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 Van Bibber Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Van Bibber Lake's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 165 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Van Bibber Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Van Bibber Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 29 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Van Bibber Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Van Bibber Lake's boundary and the 165 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Van Bibber Lake sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Van Bibber Lake 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 Van Bibber Lake's 165 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Putnam County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Putnam 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 Putnam County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Van Bibber Lake's 165 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Van Bibber Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 165 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Van Bibber Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaVan Bibber Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides