Braceville, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Braceville, 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 Braceville 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 Braceville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Braceville — the short answer
Braceville, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Braceville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Braceville's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Braceville
Each reading below is measured for Braceville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBraceville runs about 203 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
MeasuredBraceville 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 Braceville is in
Braceville sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Braceville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grundy County.
What Grows in Braceville
Every plant below cleared Braceville's own zone 5b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Braceville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 30 — 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 Braceville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Braceville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Maint GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Braceville Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Dabro Supply CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Casey's General Store #1468Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Godley Rark DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Bookwalter Woods, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- EXELON BRAIDWOOD GENERATING STATIONBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Cardinal Transport IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- ENVIRONMENTAL WASTE RESOURCES INCBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- Braidwood Il Fo RptrUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- South East Corner Reed Rd & I 55Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Braidwood Fuel, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Braceville'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 Braceville.
Total Sites
156
within ~10 miles of Braceville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Braceville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Braceville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Braceville, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Braceville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Braceville
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 Braceville average
Your land is one point inside Braceville
Everything above resolves to Braceville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Braceville Average
Braceville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Braceville
- ●One soil character for all of Braceville
- ●Frost dates read at Braceville's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Braceville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Braceville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Braceville, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Braceville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Braceville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Braceville average
How we know this about Braceville
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 Braceville’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 Braceville
When does frost risk typically end in Braceville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Braceville 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 Braceville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Braceville typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Braceville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Braceville sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 16, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Braceville?
The federal record around Braceville is a meaningful one — 156 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Braceville?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Braceville's scale — its 5b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Braceville'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 Braceville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Braceville's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,991 acres it covers and 156 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Braceville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Braceville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 30 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 156 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Braceville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Braceville's boundary and the 1,991 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Braceville'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 Braceville's 1,991 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grundy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grundy 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 Grundy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Braceville's 1,991 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Braceville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,991 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Braceville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBraceville sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides