Belle Rive, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Belle Rive, 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 Belle Rive 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 Belle Rive — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Belle Rive — the short answer
Belle Rive, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 657 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 657 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 Belle Rive's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belle Rive's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belle Rive
Each reading below is measured for Belle Rive itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBelle Rive runs about 221 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
MeasuredBelle Rive 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 Belle Rive is in
Belle Rive sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Belle Rive's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Belle Rive
Every plant below cleared Belle Rive's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belle Rive?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Belle Rive
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belle Rive. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Murrel Bernard Grain ElevatorUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Ten Mile Creek Eads UnitUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Jack SmileyUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Gateway FSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TAYLOR-ATKINSON INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Mount Vernon Il RacgUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Irwin WillienUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Tonya SpicuzzaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- United Il BankUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Frank Zachman FertilizerUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Dahlgren Attendance CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Hamson's Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belle Rive'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 Belle Rive.
Total Sites
83
within ~10 miles of Belle Rive
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belle Rive
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belle Rive
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Belle Rive, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Belle Rive — Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (56 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 Belle Rive
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 Belle Rive average
Your land is one point inside Belle Rive
Everything above resolves to Belle Rive as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 657 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 Belle Rive Average
Belle Rive Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Belle Rive
- ●One soil character for all of Belle Rive
- ●Frost dates read at Belle Rive's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belle Rive's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belle Rive
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belle Rive, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belle Rive averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belle Rive — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belle Rive average
How we know this about Belle Rive
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 Belle Rive’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 Belle Rive
When does frost risk typically end in Belle Rive?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belle Rive typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Belle Rive?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belle Rive typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belle Rive?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belle Rive sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 22, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belle Rive?
The federal record around Belle Rive is a meaningful one — 83 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), 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 Belle Rive?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Belle Rive's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belle Rive'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 Belle Rive’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Belle Rive's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 657 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belle Rive's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Belle Rive's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 5 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belle Rive, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belle Rive's boundary and the 657 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Belle Rive'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 Belle Rive's 657 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Belle Rive's 657 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belle Rive you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 657 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 Belle Rive-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBelle Rive sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.