Beason, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Beason, 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 Beason 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 Beason — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beason — the short answer
Beason, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 278 acres of town.
- 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)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 278 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 Beason's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beason's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beason
Each reading below is measured for Beason itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeason runs about 209 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
MeasuredBeason 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 Beason is in
Beason sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beason's own centroid rather than borrowed from Logan County.
What Grows in Beason
Every plant below cleared Beason's own zone 6a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beason?
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 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 Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Beason
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beason. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Westen Implement CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Alltel Il IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Beason Ag CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Eagle-Picher MineMining · 2.5 mi
- 20N 1E-32.1eNitrate · 3.9 mi
- 20N 1E-29.1eNitrate · 4.6 mi
- LINCOLN FARM CORP. - FINISHER SITECAFO · 5.5 mi
- Don SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- Georges 66Underground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- ChestnutUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Kaiser Agricultural ChemicalsUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- Vigoro Industries IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beason'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 Beason.
Total Sites
126
within ~10 miles of Beason
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beason
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beason
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beason, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Beason. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Beason
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 Beason average
Your land is one point inside Beason
Everything above resolves to Beason as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 278 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 Beason Average
Beason Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Beason
- ●One soil character for all of Beason
- ●Frost dates read at Beason's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beason's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beason
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beason, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beason averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beason — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beason average
How we know this about Beason
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 Beason’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 Beason
When does frost risk typically end in Beason?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beason 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 Beason?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beason 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 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beason?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beason sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 15, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beason?
The federal record around Beason shows 126 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (73), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Beason?
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 Beason's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beason'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 Beason’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Beason's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 278 acres it covers and 126 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beason's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beason's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 29 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 126 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beason, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beason's boundary and the 278 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beason'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 Beason's 278 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Logan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Logan 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 Logan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beason's 278 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beason you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 278 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 Beason-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBeason sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides