Gardeners have an updated tool to help determine which plants are most likely to thrive in the Region. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a new Plant Hardiness Zone Map last week, the first update since 2012. The map places areas across the country into zones based on 30-year averages of the lowest annual winter temperatures and the USDA says as with the 2012 map, the new version has 13 zones across the United States and its territories, each broken into half zones, designated as “A” and “B.” Locally, the upper half of Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties near Lake Michigan and a few other areas are 6a, while Lowell, for instance, and many other areas in northwest Indiana are one step cooler at 5b. Here a link to the updated map with a search by ZIP Code feature.
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, 2023, for Indiana. Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Accessed from https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/ https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, 2023. Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. ( Accessed from https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/ )
Here is the previous map from 2012:
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, 2012. Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Accessed from https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/
