Coatsburg, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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 Coatsburg, 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 Coatsburg 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 Coatsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coatsburg — the short answer
Coatsburg, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 84 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 84 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 Coatsburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coatsburg's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coatsburg
Each reading below is measured for Coatsburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCoatsburg runs about 218 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
MeasuredCoatsburg 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 Coatsburg is in
Coatsburg sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Coatsburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Coatsburg
Every plant below cleared Coatsburg's own zone 6a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coatsburg?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Coatsburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coatsburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Coatsburg Conv CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- ADAMS FS, INC. PALOMABrownfields · 1.8 mi
- Adams Fs IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Zimmerman Rich & SandraUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Adams F S IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- HUGENBERG HOGS # 2CAFO · 2.9 mi
- AbbottsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Korner Kwik StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- MEIER AUTOBODYBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- Casey's General Store # 2837Underground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Village Of Camp Point Maint ShedUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Adams Electrical Co-OperativeUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coatsburg'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 Coatsburg.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coatsburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coatsburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coatsburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Coatsburg — CAFO (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (36 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Coatsburg
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 Coatsburg average
Your land is one point inside Coatsburg
Everything above resolves to Coatsburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 84 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 Coatsburg Average
Coatsburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Coatsburg
- ●One soil character for all of Coatsburg
- ●Frost dates read at Coatsburg's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coatsburg's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coatsburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coatsburg, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coatsburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coatsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coatsburg average
How we know this about Coatsburg
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 Coatsburg’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 Coatsburg
When does frost risk typically end in Coatsburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coatsburg typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Coatsburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coatsburg typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coatsburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coatsburg sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 20, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coatsburg?
The federal record around Coatsburg is a meaningful one — 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), 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 Coatsburg?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coatsburg's scale — its 6a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coatsburg'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 Coatsburg’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Coatsburg's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 84 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coatsburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coatsburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 3 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coatsburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coatsburg's boundary and the 84 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Coatsburg'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 Coatsburg's 84 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 Coatsburg's 84 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coatsburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 84 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 Coatsburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisCoatsburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides