Chebanse, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Chebanse, 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 Chebanse 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 Chebanse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chebanse — the short answer
Chebanse, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 505 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 505 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 Chebanse's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chebanse's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chebanse
Each reading below is measured for Chebanse itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChebanse runs about 204 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
MeasuredChebanse 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 Chebanse is in
Chebanse sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chebanse's own centroid rather than borrowed from Iroquois County.
What Grows in Chebanse
Every plant below cleared Chebanse's own zone 5b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chebanse?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 31 — 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 Chebanse
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chebanse. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Chebanse Crop Service, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- KITCHEN SOLVERSBrownfields · 700 ft
- Wilking TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- KENS TRUCK REPAIR INCBrownfields · 950 ft
- Mike Ser StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DUVALL JIM BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Waste Management FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Borden Inc Cheese TekUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BAKER'S BODY REPAIRBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Chebanse BP Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CHEFFERS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- Kankakee Industrial DisposalUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chebanse'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 Chebanse.
Total Sites
285
within ~10 miles of Chebanse
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
19 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chebanse
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chebanse
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chebanse, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 19 sites within ~10 miles of Chebanse. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Chebanse
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 Chebanse average
Your land is one point inside Chebanse
Everything above resolves to Chebanse as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 505 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 Chebanse Average
Chebanse Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Chebanse
- ●One soil character for all of Chebanse
- ●Frost dates read at Chebanse's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chebanse's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chebanse
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chebanse, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chebanse averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chebanse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chebanse average
How we know this about Chebanse
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 Chebanse’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 Chebanse
When does frost risk typically end in Chebanse?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chebanse 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 Chebanse?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chebanse typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chebanse?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chebanse sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 17, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chebanse?
The federal record around Chebanse is a meaningful one — 285 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (169), 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 Chebanse?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chebanse's scale — its 5b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chebanse'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 Chebanse’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chebanse's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 505 acres it covers and 285 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chebanse's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chebanse's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 31 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 285 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chebanse, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chebanse's boundary and the 505 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chebanse'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 Chebanse's 505 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 Chebanse's 505 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chebanse you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 505 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 Chebanse-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisChebanse sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides