Bath, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Bath, 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 Bath 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 Bath — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bath — the short answer
Bath, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 234 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
- 234 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 Bath's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bath's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bath
Each reading below is measured for Bath itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBath 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
MeasuredBath 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 Bath is in
Bath sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bath's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mason County is mostly Central Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bath
Every plant below cleared Bath'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 Bath?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Bath
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bath. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Formerly Bath Bus BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Abandoned Skelly StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Jewell L MooreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Decatur Airport & RcagUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- R & D Bait ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Miller ChevroletUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 1400 E and 1000 NNitrate · 3.0 mi
- Il Dept Of ConservationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Browning Senior Citizens CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- OIL FILTER RECYCLERSBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- Havana TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Water Resources Maint Yard #7Underground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bath'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 Bath.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of Bath
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bath
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bath
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bath, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Bath. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Bath
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 Bath average
Your land is one point inside Bath
Everything above resolves to Bath as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 234 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 Bath Average
Bath Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bath
- ●One soil character for all of Bath
- ●Frost dates read at Bath's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bath's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bath
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bath, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bath averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bath — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bath average
How we know this about Bath
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 Bath’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 Bath
When does frost risk typically end in Bath?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bath 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 Bath?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bath 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 Bath?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bath 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 Bath?
The federal record around Bath is a meaningful one — 87 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Bath?
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 Bath's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bath'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 Bath’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bath's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 234 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bath's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bath's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 29 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bath, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bath's boundary and the 234 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bath sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bath's 234 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mason County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mason 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 Mason County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bath's 234 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bath you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 234 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 Bath-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBath sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides