Avon, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Avon, 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 Avon 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 Avon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Avon — the short answer
Avon, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 284 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 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 284 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 Avon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Avon's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Avon
Each reading below is measured for Avon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAvon runs about 204 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
MeasuredAvon 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 Avon is in
Avon sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Avon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fulton County.
What Grows in Avon
Every plant below cleared Avon's own zone 5b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Avon?
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 28 — 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 Avon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Avon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Avon Farm Supply IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- Casey's General Store #1275Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Union Township LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- WARECO 116Brownfields · 800 ft
- Bainter FertUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Avon Unit Schools Dist 176Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NEFF CO AVONBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Deere CrossingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- RADIUS AG, LLC AND ERIC MCEWEN FARMCAFO · 2.7 mi
- Prairie Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Prairie City AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- JAYS AUTO SALVAGEBrownfields · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Avon'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 Avon.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Avon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Avon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Avon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Avon, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Avon. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Avon
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 Avon average
Your land is one point inside Avon
Everything above resolves to Avon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 284 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 Avon Average
Avon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Avon
- ●One soil character for all of Avon
- ●Frost dates read at Avon's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Avon's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Avon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Avon, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Avon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Avon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Avon average
How we know this about Avon
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 Avon’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 Avon
When does frost risk typically end in Avon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Avon 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 Avon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Avon typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Avon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Avon sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 14, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Avon?
The federal record around Avon is a meaningful one — 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), 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 Avon?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Avon's scale — its 5b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Avon'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 Avon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Avon's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 284 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Avon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Avon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 28 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Avon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Avon's boundary and the 284 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Avon'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 Avon's 284 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fulton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fulton 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 Fulton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Avon's 284 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Avon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 284 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 Avon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisAvon sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides