Clayton, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Clayton, 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 Clayton 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 Clayton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Clayton — the short answer
Clayton, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 566 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 566 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 6a is Clayton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clayton's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clayton
Each reading below is measured for Clayton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClayton runs about 213 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
MeasuredClayton sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Clayton is in
Clayton sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clayton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Clayton
Every plant below cleared Clayton's own zone 6a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clayton?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Clayton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clayton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bush Sand BlastingUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Coggeshall Const CoincUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Bobs Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- K & K Grocery & GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Siloam Springs State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Former Couch's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Parker Gas-N-More, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- EDWIN BEACHY FARMCAFO · 2.3 mi
- Ayerco #5 Convenience CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Perry Feed & FertilizerUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Lee TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Wa Perry & Son El IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clayton'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 Clayton.
Total Sites
31
within ~10 miles of Clayton
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clayton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clayton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clayton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Clayton. 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 Clayton
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 Clayton average
Your land is one point inside Clayton
Everything above resolves to Clayton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 566 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 Clayton Average
Clayton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Clayton
- ●One soil character for all of Clayton
- ●Frost dates read at Clayton's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clayton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clayton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clayton, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clayton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clayton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clayton average
How we know this about Clayton
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 Clayton’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 Clayton
When does frost risk typically end in Clayton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clayton typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Clayton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clayton typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clayton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clayton sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 18, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clayton?
The federal record around Clayton is light — 31 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Clayton?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clayton's scale — its 6a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clayton'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 Clayton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Clayton's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 566 acres it covers and 31 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clayton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clayton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 1 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 31 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clayton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clayton's boundary and the 566 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clayton'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 Clayton's 566 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clayton's 566 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clayton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 566 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 Clayton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisClayton sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides