Buckley, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Buckley, 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 Buckley 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 Buckley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Buckley — the short answer
Buckley, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 202 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 202 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 Buckley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buckley's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buckley
Each reading below is measured for Buckley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBuckley runs about 200 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
MeasuredBuckley 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 Buckley is in
Buckley sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Buckley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Iroquois County.
What Grows in Buckley
Every plant below cleared Buckley's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Buckley?
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 27 — 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 Buckley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buckley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Goats Sales & ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Buckley ElevatorUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Norman CrevelingUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Central Illinois Harvestore IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- IDOT BUCKLEYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- BUCKLEYPFAS · 0.7 mi
- Brads Of Buckley IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MARATHON ASHLAND PIPE LINE LLCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- MARK WALDBESERCAFO · 5.3 mi
- Meats PlusUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- Wall Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- Lake Iroquois AssociationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buckley'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 Buckley.
Total Sites
79
within ~10 miles of Buckley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buckley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buckley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buckley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Buckley — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (62 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Buckley
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 Buckley average
Your land is one point inside Buckley
Everything above resolves to Buckley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 202 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 Buckley Average
Buckley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Buckley
- ●One soil character for all of Buckley
- ●Frost dates read at Buckley's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buckley's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buckley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buckley, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buckley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buckley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buckley average
How we know this about Buckley
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 Buckley’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 Buckley
When does frost risk typically end in Buckley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buckley 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 Buckley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buckley typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buckley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buckley sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 13, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buckley?
The federal record around Buckley shows 79 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), 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 Buckley?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Buckley's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buckley'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 Buckley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Buckley's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 202 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buckley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Buckley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 27 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buckley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buckley's boundary and the 202 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Buckley'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 Buckley's 202 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Iroquois County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Iroquois 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 Iroquois County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buckley's 202 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buckley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 202 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 Buckley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBuckley sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides