Albany, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Albany, 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 Albany 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 Albany — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Albany — the short answer
Albany, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 685 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 685 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 5b is Albany's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Albany's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Albany
Each reading below is measured for Albany itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlbany runs about 203 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
MeasuredAlbany sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Albany is in
Albany sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Albany's own centroid rather than borrowed from Whiteside County.
What Grows in Albany
Every plant below cleared Albany's own zone 5b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Albany?
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 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 Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Albany
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Albany. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Albany Village OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Truck Transport IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Albany Grade SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Hank's Fish & Groc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Expresslane #74Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Miller Replacement WindowUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Shirley TusingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Welch GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Albany WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Growmark IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ITC TRANSMISSIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- HAWKINS CAMANCHE, IAToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Albany'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 Albany.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Albany
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Albany
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Albany, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Albany — Toxics Release Inventory (34 sites) and CAFO (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Albany
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 Albany average
Your land is one point inside Albany
Everything above resolves to Albany as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 685 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 Albany Average
Albany Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Albany
- ●One soil character for all of Albany
- ●Frost dates read at Albany's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Albany's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Albany
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Albany, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Albany averages can't show:
We read public map data around Albany — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Albany average
How we know this about Albany
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 Albany’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 Albany
When does frost risk typically end in Albany?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Albany 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 Albany?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Albany typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Albany?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Albany sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 13, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Albany?
The federal record around Albany is a meaningful one — 371 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (186), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Albany?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Albany's scale — its 5b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Albany'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 Albany’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Albany's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 685 acres it covers and 371 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Albany's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Albany's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 27 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 371 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Albany, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Albany's boundary and the 685 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Albany's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Albany's 685 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Whiteside County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Whiteside County
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Whiteside County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Albany's 685 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Albany you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 685 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Albany-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisAlbany sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides