Cambria, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cambria, 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 Cambria 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 Cambria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cambria — the short answer
Cambria, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 906 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 906 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 7a is Cambria's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cambria's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cambria
Each reading below is measured for Cambria itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCambria 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
MeasuredCambria sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Cambria is in
Cambria sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cambria's own centroid rather than borrowed from Williamson County.
What Grows in Cambria
Every plant below cleared Cambria's own zone 7a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cambria?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Cambria
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cambria. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cambria Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Casey's General Store #3669Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Cambria Village OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Bumper to BumperUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Williamson Coal CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Walkers Bluff General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WILLIAMSON COAL COBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 13975Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- FIRST STOP BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- COMMUNITY COLLEGE DIST 530Brownfields · 2.5 mi
- Rowland MachineryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Southern Il Wholesale Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cambria'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 Cambria.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cambria
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cambria
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Cambria
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 Cambria average
Your land is one point inside Cambria
Everything above resolves to Cambria as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 906 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 Cambria Average
Cambria Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cambria
- ●One soil character for all of Cambria
- ●Frost dates read at Cambria's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cambria's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cambria
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cambria, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cambria averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cambria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cambria average
How we know this about Cambria
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 Cambria’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 Cambria
When does frost risk typically end in Cambria?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cambria 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 Cambria?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cambria typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cambria?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cambria sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 19, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cambria?
The federal record around Cambria is a meaningful one — 363 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (220), 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 Cambria?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cambria's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cambria'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 Cambria’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cambria's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 906 acres it covers and 363 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cambria's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cambria's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 2 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 363 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cambria, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cambria's boundary and the 906 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cambria'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 Cambria's 906 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Williamson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Williamson 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 Williamson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cambria's 906 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cambria you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 906 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 Cambria-wide figureread your own land →