Arcola, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Arcola, 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 Arcola 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 Arcola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Arcola — the short answer
Arcola, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Arcola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arcola's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arcola
Each reading below is measured for Arcola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArcola runs about 212 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
MeasuredArcola 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 Arcola is in
Arcola sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arcola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Douglas County.
What Grows in Arcola
Every plant below cleared Arcola's own zone 6a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arcola?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Arcola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arcola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Arcola Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- LIBMAN CO THEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Il Cereal Mills Filson ElevUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Ray & KayUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Arcola Country Store & Gas, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JER OVERHAULBrownfields · 1100 ft
- GOODS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1100 ft
- WARE KLUMP OIL COBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Johnson Oil Company, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Jack Flash - ArcolaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Arcola Coal & Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arcola'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 Arcola.
Total Sites
140
within ~10 miles of Arcola
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arcola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arcola
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arcola, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Arcola. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Arcola
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 Arcola average
Your land is one point inside Arcola
Everything above resolves to Arcola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 city 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 Arcola Average
Arcola Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Arcola
- ●One soil character for all of Arcola
- ●Frost dates read at Arcola's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arcola's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arcola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arcola, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arcola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arcola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arcola average
How we know this about Arcola
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Arcola’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Arcola
When does frost risk typically end in Arcola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arcola typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Arcola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arcola typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arcola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arcola sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 18, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arcola?
The federal record around Arcola shows 140 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Arcola?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arcola's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arcola'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 Arcola’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arcola's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,295 acres it covers and 140 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arcola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arcola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 1 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 140 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arcola, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arcola's boundary and the 1,295 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arcola'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 Arcola's 1,295 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arcola's 1,295 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arcola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,295 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 Arcola-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisArcola sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.