Alexis, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Alexis, 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 Alexis 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 Alexis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alexis — the short answer
Alexis, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 304 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 304 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 Alexis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alexis's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alexis
Each reading below is measured for Alexis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlexis runs about 202 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
MeasuredAlexis 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 Alexis is in
Alexis sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alexis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Warren County.
What Grows in Alexis
Every plant below cleared Alexis's own zone 5b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alexis?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 27 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Alexis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alexis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Alexis Motor CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- ALEXIS FIRE EQUIPMENT COBrownfields · 100 ft
- Alexis Fire Equipment CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- Dahl DickUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Alexis Village OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Alexis MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- R & C IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Alexis C U Dist 400Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Stockyard Feed StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Dl Hanna TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DON EDWARDS FARMCAFO · 1.9 mi
- SF VENTURES, LLC - FLOWERSCAFO · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alexis'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 Alexis.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Alexis
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alexis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alexis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alexis, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Alexis. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Alexis
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 Alexis average
Your land is one point inside Alexis
Everything above resolves to Alexis as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 304 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 Alexis Average
Alexis Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Alexis
- ●One soil character for all of Alexis
- ●Frost dates read at Alexis's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alexis's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alexis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alexis, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alexis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alexis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alexis average
How we know this about Alexis
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 Alexis’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 Alexis
When does frost risk typically end in Alexis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alexis 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 Alexis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alexis 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 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alexis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alexis sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 13, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alexis?
The federal record around Alexis shows 57 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Alexis?
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 Alexis's scale — its 5b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alexis'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 Alexis’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alexis's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 304 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alexis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alexis's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 27 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alexis, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alexis's boundary and the 304 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alexis's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alexis's 304 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warren 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 Warren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alexis's 304 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alexis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 304 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Alexis-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisAlexis sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides