Armington, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Armington, 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 Armington 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 Armington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Armington — the short answer
Armington, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 182 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 182 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 Armington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Armington's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Armington
Each reading below is measured for Armington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArmington runs about 207 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
MeasuredArmington 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 Armington is in
Armington sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Armington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tazewell County.
What Grows in Armington
Every plant below cleared Armington's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Armington?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Armington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Armington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Armington Comm Park DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Armington Village OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Hittle TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Harbach Gillan & Nixon IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Turner Oil Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Ag Land Fs IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DARRELL SPRINGER FARMS - ARMINGTONCAFO · 3.0 mi
- 21N 2W-01.8eNitrate · 3.0 mi
- DARRELL SPRINGER FARMS - HOPEDALECAFO · 5.2 mi
- Olympia CUSD #16Underground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- 21N 1W-18.8aNitrate · 5.7 mi
- BIRKEY SWINE FARM - HOME SITECAFO · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Armington'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 Armington.
Total Sites
78
within ~10 miles of Armington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Armington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Armington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Armington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Armington — CAFO (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (51 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Armington
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 Armington average
Your land is one point inside Armington
Everything above resolves to Armington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 182 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 Armington Average
Armington Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Armington
- ●One soil character for all of Armington
- ●Frost dates read at Armington's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Armington's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Armington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Armington, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Armington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Armington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Armington average
How we know this about Armington
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 Armington’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 Armington
When does frost risk typically end in Armington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Armington typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Armington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Armington typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Armington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Armington sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 15, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Armington?
The federal record around Armington is a meaningful one — 78 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Armington?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Armington's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Armington'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 Armington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Armington's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 182 acres it covers and 78 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Armington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Armington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 29 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 78 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Armington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Armington's boundary and the 182 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Armington'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 Armington's 182 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tazewell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tazewell 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 Tazewell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Armington's 182 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Armington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 182 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 Armington-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisArmington sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.