Coleta, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, 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 Coleta, 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 Coleta 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 Coleta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coleta — the short answer
Coleta, Illinois: USDA zone 5a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 237 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 237 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 5a is Coleta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coleta's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coleta
Each reading below is measured for Coleta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredColeta runs about 184 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredColeta sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Coleta is in
Coleta sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Coleta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Whiteside County.
What Grows in Coleta
Every plant below cleared Coleta's own zone 5a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coleta?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Coleta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coleta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Genesee TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- Coleta Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Jakobs Brothers FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- JAKOBS BROS. FARMSCAFO · 2.8 mi
- Rich and Manton RdsNitrate · 3.2 mi
- Milledgeville Mini- MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Schmitt Motors PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Byvick ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Carroll Service Company F24Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- SHANKS VETERINARY EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- Former Zemke TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Gibbs Dry WallUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coleta'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 Coleta.
Total Sites
187
within ~10 miles of Coleta
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coleta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coleta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coleta, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Coleta — CAFO (4 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Coleta
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 Coleta average
Your land is one point inside Coleta
Everything above resolves to Coleta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 237 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 Coleta Average
Coleta Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Coleta
- ●One soil character for all of Coleta
- ●Frost dates read at Coleta's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coleta's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coleta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coleta, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coleta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coleta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coleta average
How we know this about Coleta
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 Coleta’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 Coleta
When does frost risk typically end in Coleta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coleta typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Coleta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coleta typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coleta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coleta sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 3, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coleta?
The federal record around Coleta is a meaningful one — 187 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (105), 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 Coleta?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coleta's scale — its 5a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coleta'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 Coleta’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Coleta's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 237 acres it covers and 187 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coleta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coleta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 17 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 187 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coleta, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coleta's boundary and the 237 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Coleta'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 Coleta's 237 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Whiteside County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Whiteside 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 Whiteside County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coleta's 237 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coleta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 237 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 Coleta-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisColeta sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides