Alsey, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alsey, 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 Alsey 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 Alsey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alsey — the short answer
Alsey, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 351 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 351 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 Alsey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alsey's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alsey
Each reading below is measured for Alsey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlsey runs about 216 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
MeasuredAlsey 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 Alsey is in
Alsey sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alsey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scott County.
What Grows in Alsey
Every plant below cleared Alsey's own zone 6a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alsey?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Alsey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alsey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Scott Farm Ser IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ALSEY GENERATING STATIONBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- UNITED CONTRACTORS MIDWESTBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- Eddinger's ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Winchester School DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- MARSHALL CHEVROLET COBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- Marshall Chevrolet CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- WINCHESTER HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- SOUTH JACKSONVILLEPFAS · 4.9 mi
- Scott County Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Il Rural Electric CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- WARECO 783Brownfields · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alsey'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 Alsey.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alsey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alsey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alsey, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Alsey. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Alsey
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 Alsey average
Your land is one point inside Alsey
Everything above resolves to Alsey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 351 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 Alsey Average
Alsey Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Alsey
- ●One soil character for all of Alsey
- ●Frost dates read at Alsey's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alsey's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alsey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alsey, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alsey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alsey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alsey average
How we know this about Alsey
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 Alsey’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 Alsey
When does frost risk typically end in Alsey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alsey typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Alsey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alsey typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alsey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alsey sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 19, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alsey?
The federal record around Alsey shows 74 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (52), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Alsey?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alsey's scale — its 6a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alsey'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 Alsey’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alsey's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 351 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alsey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alsey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 2 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alsey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alsey's boundary and the 351 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alsey'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 Alsey's 351 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scott 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 Scott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alsey's 351 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alsey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 351 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Alsey-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisAlsey sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides