Bloomfield, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bloomfield, 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 Bloomfield 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 Bloomfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bloomfield — the short answer
Bloomfield, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 333 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 333 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 Bloomfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bloomfield's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bloomfield
Each reading below is measured for Bloomfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBloomfield runs about 220 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
MeasuredBloomfield 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 Bloomfield is in
Bloomfield sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bloomfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Bloomfield
Every plant below cleared Bloomfield's own zone 6a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bloomfield?
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 4 — 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 Bloomfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bloomfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- C AND W FARMS, LLCCAFO · 3.0 mi
- COCA-COLA REFRESHMENTS USA INCBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- 1S 8W-24.8dNitrate · 3.5 mi
- KHQA Benedek Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- OTR WHEEL ENGINEERING INCBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- Robins G SUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- ANIMAL HEALTH INTERNATIONALBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS CORPBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- HARRIS CORP BROADCASTBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- Ryder Truck Rental #0796Underground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- United Parcel SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bloomfield'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 Bloomfield.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bloomfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bloomfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bloomfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bloomfield — Toxics Release Inventory (28 sites) and CAFO (3 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Bloomfield
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 Bloomfield average
Your land is one point inside Bloomfield
Everything above resolves to Bloomfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 333 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 Bloomfield Average
Bloomfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bloomfield
- ●One soil character for all of Bloomfield
- ●Frost dates read at Bloomfield's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bloomfield's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bloomfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bloomfield, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bloomfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bloomfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bloomfield average
How we know this about Bloomfield
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 Bloomfield’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 Bloomfield
When does frost risk typically end in Bloomfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bloomfield 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 Bloomfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bloomfield typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bloomfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bloomfield sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 21, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bloomfield?
The federal record around Bloomfield is a meaningful one — 355 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (192), the nearest CAFO record about 3.0 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 Bloomfield?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bloomfield's scale — its 6a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bloomfield'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 Bloomfield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bloomfield's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 333 acres it covers and 355 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bloomfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bloomfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 4 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 355 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bloomfield, the closest CAFO record about 3.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bloomfield's boundary and the 333 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bloomfield'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 Bloomfield's 333 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bloomfield's 333 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bloomfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 333 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 3.0 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 Bloomfield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBloomfield sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.