Alhambra, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alhambra, 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 Alhambra 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 Alhambra — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alhambra — the short answer
Alhambra, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 484 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 484 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 6b is Alhambra's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alhambra's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alhambra
Each reading below is measured for Alhambra itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlhambra runs about 225 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
MeasuredAlhambra sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Alhambra is in
Alhambra sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alhambra's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Alhambra
Every plant below cleared Alhambra's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alhambra?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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.
Documented around Alhambra
Survey cells within 31 miles of Alhambra checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 213 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Alhambra
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alhambra. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- All B & C Land CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Gehrig's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Hitz Memorial HomeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Alhambra ElementaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Alhambra Fuel 24Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Mayflower Serv IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Maedge's Mini Mart, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Hamel 66 SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Worden AntiquesUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Schlechte's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- 5N6W-32.4a1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- ILDOT FAI RTE 55Brownfields · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alhambra'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 Alhambra.
Total Sites
115
within ~10 miles of Alhambra
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alhambra
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alhambra
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alhambra, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Alhambra — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (72 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Alhambra
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 Alhambra average
Your land is one point inside Alhambra
Everything above resolves to Alhambra as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 484 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 Alhambra Average
Alhambra Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Alhambra
- ●One soil character for all of Alhambra
- ●Frost dates read at Alhambra's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alhambra's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alhambra
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alhambra, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alhambra averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alhambra — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alhambra average
How we know this about Alhambra
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 Alhambra’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 Alhambra
When does frost risk typically end in Alhambra?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alhambra typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Alhambra?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alhambra typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alhambra?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alhambra sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 24, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alhambra?
The federal record around Alhambra is a meaningful one — 115 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (72), 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 Alhambra?
From about Oct 8 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 Nov 7 (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 Nov 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alhambra's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alhambra'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 Alhambra’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Alhambra's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 484 acres it covers and 115 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alhambra's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alhambra's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 7 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 115 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alhambra, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alhambra's boundary and the 484 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alhambra's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Alhambra 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 Alhambra's 484 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alhambra's 484 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alhambra you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 484 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 Alhambra-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisAlhambra sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides