Benson, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Benson, 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 Benson 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 Benson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Benson — the short answer
Benson, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 104 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- 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
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 104 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 Benson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Benson's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Benson
Each reading below is measured for Benson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBenson runs about 201 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
MeasuredBenson 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 Benson is in
Benson sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Benson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Woodford County.
What Grows in Benson
Every plant below cleared Benson's own zone 5b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Benson?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Benson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Benson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Auto Gas of BensonUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Arn GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Roanoke-Benson Jr HighUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Clayton TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Benson RadioUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 27N 1W-24.1hNitrate · 4.4 mi
- Linn Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Petri Bros Const Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Woodford Fs IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Benson Farmers Co-OpUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- IMC FERTILIZER INCBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- HODEL TURKEY FARM, INC - EL PASOCAFO · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Benson'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 Benson.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Benson
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Benson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Benson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Benson, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Benson. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Benson
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 Benson average
Your land is one point inside Benson
Everything above resolves to Benson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 104 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 Benson Average
Benson Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Benson
- ●One soil character for all of Benson
- ●Frost dates read at Benson's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Benson's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Benson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Benson, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Benson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Benson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Benson average
How we know this about Benson
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 Benson’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 Benson
When does frost risk typically end in Benson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Benson typically lands around Apr 10, 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 May 1.
When is the first frost in Benson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Benson 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 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Benson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Benson sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 14, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Benson?
The federal record around Benson shows 108 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), 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 Benson?
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 Benson's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Benson'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 Benson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Benson's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 104 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Benson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Benson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 28 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Benson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Benson's boundary and the 104 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Benson'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 Benson's 104 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Woodford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Woodford 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 Woodford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Benson's 104 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Benson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 104 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 Benson-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBenson sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.