Buda, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Buda, 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 Buda 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 Buda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Buda — the short answer
Buda, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 649 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 649 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 Buda's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buda's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buda
Each reading below is measured for Buda itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBuda runs about 198 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBuda 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 Buda is in
Buda sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Buda's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bureau County.
What Grows in Buda
Every plant below cleared Buda's own zone 5b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Buda?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Buda
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buda. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bureau Valley High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Van Packer Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- VAN PACKER COBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Macon Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Edwards, JackUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 16N 7E-34.6c1Nitrate · 1700 ft
- Casey's General Store #1293Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Martin TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- At&T CommunicationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BUDAPFAS · 2.0 mi
- EUCLID CHEMICAL FIREToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- EUCLID CHEMICAL FIRESuperfund · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buda'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 Buda.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Buda
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buda
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buda
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buda, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 51 sites within ~10 miles of Buda. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Buda
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 Buda average
Your land is one point inside Buda
Everything above resolves to Buda as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 649 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 Buda Average
Buda Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Buda
- ●One soil character for all of Buda
- ●Frost dates read at Buda's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buda's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buda
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buda, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buda averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buda average
How we know this about Buda
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 Buda’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 Buda
When does frost risk typically end in Buda?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buda typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Buda?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buda typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buda?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buda sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 12, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buda?
The federal record around Buda is a meaningful one — 72 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), 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 Buda?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Buda's scale — its 5b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buda'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 Buda’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Buda's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 649 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buda's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Buda's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 26 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buda, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buda's boundary and the 649 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Buda'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 Buda's 649 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bureau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bureau 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 Bureau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buda's 649 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buda you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 649 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 Buda-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBuda sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.