Carlyle, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Carlyle, 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 Carlyle 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 Carlyle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Carlyle — the short answer
Carlyle, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 6b is Carlyle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carlyle's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carlyle
Each reading below is measured for Carlyle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarlyle runs about 222 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
MeasuredCarlyle 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 Carlyle is in
Carlyle sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Carlyle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clinton County.
What Grows in Carlyle
Every plant below cleared Carlyle's own zone 6b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carlyle?
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 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Carlyle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carlyle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 436Brownfields · 1500 ft
- C C Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WIEGMAN MOTOR CO INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Carlyle Food & LiquorUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Forrest Marathon StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Eastern United Supply CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DavisoliverUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- West Access MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Frerker Jim & Kueper GilbertUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Wiegman Motor Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Carlyle Healthcare Ctr IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CC Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carlyle'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 Carlyle.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carlyle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carlyle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carlyle, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Carlyle. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Carlyle
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 Carlyle average
Your land is one point inside Carlyle
Everything above resolves to Carlyle 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 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 Carlyle Average
Carlyle Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Carlyle
- ●One soil character for all of Carlyle
- ●Frost dates read at Carlyle's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carlyle's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carlyle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carlyle, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carlyle averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carlyle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carlyle average
How we know this about Carlyle
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 Carlyle’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 Carlyle
When does frost risk typically end in Carlyle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carlyle 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 Carlyle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carlyle typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carlyle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carlyle sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 21, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carlyle?
The federal record around Carlyle is a meaningful one — 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Carlyle?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carlyle's scale — its 6b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carlyle'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 Carlyle’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carlyle's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,192 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carlyle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carlyle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 4 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carlyle, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carlyle's boundary and the 2,192 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carlyle'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 Carlyle's 2,192 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton 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 Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carlyle's 2,192 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carlyle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,192 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Carlyle-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisCarlyle sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides