Bunker Hill, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bunker Hill, 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 Bunker Hill 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 Bunker Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bunker Hill — the short answer
Bunker Hill, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 820 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 820 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 6b is Bunker Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bunker Hill's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bunker Hill
Each reading below is measured for Bunker Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBunker Hill runs about 225 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
MeasuredBunker Hill sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Bunker Hill is in
Bunker Hill sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bunker Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Macoupin County.
What Grows in Bunker Hill
Every plant below cleared Bunker Hill's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bunker Hill?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Bunker Hill
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bunker Hill checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 209 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bunker Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bunker Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bunker Hill AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Ray Donald LUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Bruckert Chev IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Allen ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Farm Supply CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Bunker Hill Country MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Macoupin Ser CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Bruckert GlennUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Bunker Hill Short StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FEDERAL CONTAINER CORPBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Bunker Hill High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 9877Brownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bunker Hill'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 Bunker Hill.
Total Sites
112
within ~10 miles of Bunker Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bunker Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bunker Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bunker Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bunker Hill — PFAS (7 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Bunker Hill
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 Bunker Hill average
Your land is one point inside Bunker Hill
Everything above resolves to Bunker Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 820 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 city 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 Bunker Hill Average
Bunker Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bunker Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Bunker Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Bunker Hill's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bunker Hill's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bunker Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bunker Hill, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bunker Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bunker Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bunker Hill average
How we know this about Bunker Hill
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bunker Hill’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Bunker Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Bunker Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bunker Hill typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Bunker Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bunker Hill typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bunker Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bunker Hill sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 24, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bunker Hill?
The federal record around Bunker Hill is a meaningful one — 112 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bunker Hill?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bunker Hill's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bunker Hill'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 Bunker Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bunker Hill's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 820 acres it covers and 112 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bunker Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bunker Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 7 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 112 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bunker Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bunker Hill's boundary and the 820 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bunker Hill's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bunker Hill checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bunker Hill's 820 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Macoupin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Macoupin 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 Macoupin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bunker Hill's 820 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bunker Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 820 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 Bunker Hill-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBunker Hill sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides