Andalusia, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Andalusia, 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 Andalusia 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 Andalusia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Andalusia — the short answer
Andalusia, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 752 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 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 752 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 Andalusia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Andalusia's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Andalusia
Each reading below is measured for Andalusia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAndalusia runs about 206 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
MeasuredAndalusia 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 Andalusia is in
Andalusia sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Andalusia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rock Island County.
What Grows in Andalusia
Every plant below cleared Andalusia's own zone 5b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Andalusia?
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 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 30 — 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 Andalusia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Andalusia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QC Wash IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Andalusia MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Casey's General Store #2380Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Loomis LandingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- QUAD CITY CORVETTE PAINT INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CITY OF BUFFALOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2493Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- AGRI GRAIN MARKETINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CARGILL INC - MOLASSES DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- LINWOOD ASPHALT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- RUAN TRANSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DALES BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Andalusia'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 Andalusia.
Total Sites
607
within ~10 miles of Andalusia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Andalusia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Andalusia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Andalusia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Andalusia — Toxics Release Inventory (47 sites) and Superfund (8 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Andalusia
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 Andalusia average
Your land is one point inside Andalusia
Everything above resolves to Andalusia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 752 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 Andalusia Average
Andalusia Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Andalusia
- ●One soil character for all of Andalusia
- ●Frost dates read at Andalusia's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Andalusia's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Andalusia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Andalusia, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Andalusia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Andalusia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Andalusia average
How we know this about Andalusia
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 Andalusia’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 Andalusia
When does frost risk typically end in Andalusia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Andalusia 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 Andalusia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Andalusia typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Andalusia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Andalusia sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 16, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Andalusia?
The federal record around Andalusia is a meaningful one — 607 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (367), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Andalusia?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Andalusia's scale — its 5b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Andalusia'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 Andalusia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Andalusia's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 752 acres it covers and 607 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Andalusia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Andalusia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 30 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 607 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Andalusia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Andalusia's boundary and the 752 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Andalusia'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 Andalusia's 752 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rock Island County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rock Island 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 Rock Island County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Andalusia's 752 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Andalusia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 752 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Andalusia-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisAndalusia sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides