Wildwood, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Wildwood, 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 Wildwood 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 Wildwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wildwood — the short answer
Wildwood, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 115 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- 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
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 115 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 Wildwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wildwood's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wildwood
Each reading below is measured for Wildwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWildwood runs about 197 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
MeasuredWildwood 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 Wildwood is in
Wildwood sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wildwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Steuben County.
What Grows in Wildwood
Every plant below cleared Wildwood's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wildwood?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Wildwood
Survey cells within 31 miles of Wildwood checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 35 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wildwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wildwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ducks C StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RAYMOND GAYHEARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HELMER MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- FORT WAYNE JUNCTION CXR HELMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- GOSE EXCAVATING COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HUTCHENS STROH, IND. 3101Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- KARLEN STROH, IND.Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- VACANT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- KAOUGH STROH, IND.Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- PRAIRIE HEIGHTS COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- HUTCHENS STROH, IND. 0501Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- BOBS ECONOMY TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wildwood'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 Wildwood.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Wildwood
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wildwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wildwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wildwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wildwood — Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (88 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 Wildwood
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 Wildwood average
Your land is one point inside Wildwood
Everything above resolves to Wildwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 115 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 Wildwood Average
Wildwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Wildwood
- ●One soil character for all of Wildwood
- ●Frost dates read at Wildwood's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wildwood's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wildwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wildwood, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wildwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wildwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wildwood average
How we know this about Wildwood
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 Wildwood’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 Wildwood
When does frost risk typically end in Wildwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wildwood typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Wildwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wildwood 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 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wildwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wildwood sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 15, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wildwood?
The federal record around Wildwood shows 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (88), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Wildwood?
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 Wildwood's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wildwood'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 Wildwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wildwood's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 115 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wildwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wildwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 29 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wildwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wildwood's boundary and the 115 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wildwood's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Wildwood 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 Wildwood's 115 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Steuben County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Steuben 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 Steuben County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wildwood's 115 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wildwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 115 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Wildwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaWildwood sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides