Ashley, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Ashley, 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 Ashley 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 Ashley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ashley — the short answer
Ashley, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 722 acres of city.
- 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 722 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 Ashley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ashley's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ashley
Each reading below is measured for Ashley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAshley runs about 224 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
MeasuredAshley 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 Ashley is in
Ashley sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ashley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Ashley
Every plant below cleared Ashley's own zone 6b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ashley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 6 — 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 Ashley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ashley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT AND TBrownfields · 750 ft
- Paradigm Properties, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Popecks Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Action Amusement CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Baldridge Drilling Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Frank's PlaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Jax Asphalt CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Larry Old Ser StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- THE MASCHHOFFS - KUJAWA FACILITYCAFO · 6.2 mi
- Red BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- WOODLAWNPFAS · 7.2 mi
- Dubois Grocery/Mark PyszkaUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ashley'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 Ashley.
Total Sites
41
within ~10 miles of Ashley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ashley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ashley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ashley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ashley — Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (30 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ashley
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 Ashley average
Your land is one point inside Ashley
Everything above resolves to Ashley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 722 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 Ashley Average
Ashley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ashley
- ●One soil character for all of Ashley
- ●Frost dates read at Ashley's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ashley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ashley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ashley, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ashley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ashley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ashley average
How we know this about Ashley
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 Ashley’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 Ashley
When does frost risk typically end in Ashley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ashley 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 Ashley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ashley typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ashley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ashley sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 23, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ashley?
The federal record around Ashley is a meaningful one — 41 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Ashley?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ashley's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ashley'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 Ashley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ashley's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 722 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ashley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ashley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 6 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ashley, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ashley's boundary and the 722 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ashley'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 Ashley's 722 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ashley's 722 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ashley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 722 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Ashley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisAshley sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.