Bureau County, in Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Bureau County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Bureau County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Bureau County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bureau County — the short answer
Bureau County, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 556K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 556K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Bureau County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bureau County's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Bureau County
Across a year, Bureau County accumulates about 2,957 growing degree days above 50°F, about 426 fewer than the middle Illinois county — ahead of 14 of Illinois’s 102 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Bureau County
Across Bureau County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Muscatune, Drummer, and Sable are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.3–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
54%
Hydric soils
23%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Bureau County
The USDA soil survey maps 45% of Bureau County as well drained — but another 54% drains differently: 21% poorly drained, 15% moderately well drained.
Muscatune is the most extensive named soil at 7% of mapped acres, then Drummer (3%) and Sable (3%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Bureau County
Each reading below is measured for Bureau County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Bureau County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Bureau County runs about pH 6.3–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 23% of Bureau County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBureau County runs about 202 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
The kind of country Bureau County is in
Bureau County sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Bureau County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Bureau County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 202-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile.
Is it too late to plant in Bureau County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 29 — 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.
Documented around Bureau County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly47 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Bureau County
USGS estimates 396,503 lb of Glyphosate on Bureau County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (145,284 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (145,184 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Bureau County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Bureau County — 293 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Bureau County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Bureau County
Closest first, across Bureau County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PIONEER HI-BREDBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- Purdy Brothers Trucking, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Princeton YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Advanced Asphalt CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- EXPRESS FLIGHTING SUPPLYBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- Road Ranger #225Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Amoco SS #15688 Facility #24639Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- CORNBELT ENERGY CORPBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- Corn Belt Energy CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Princeton ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Casey's General Store #3531Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COBrownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bureau County'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 Bureau County.
Severity Distribution
across Bureau County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bureau County, two things run higher than the national average across Bureau County — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Bureau County
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 Bureau County average
Your land is one point inside Bureau County
Everything above resolves to Bureau County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 556K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Bureau County Average
Bureau County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Bureau County
- ●One soil character for all of Bureau County
- ●Frost dates read at Bureau County's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bureau County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Bureau County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bureau County, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bureau County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bureau County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bureau County average
How we know this about Bureau County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Bureau County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Bureau County
When does frost risk typically end in Bureau County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bureau County 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.
How long is the growing season in Bureau County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bureau County sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 15, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bureau County?
The federal record around Bureau County is a meaningful one — 293 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (203), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.6 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.
Everything above is measured at Bureau County's scale — its 5b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bureau County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Illinois's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Bureau County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Bureau County's own scale — its own ~202-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 293 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bureau County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bureau County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Bureau CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 293 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 2.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Bureau County's boundary and the 556,205 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bureau County sitting wholly inside the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Bureau County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Bureau County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Bureau County — the ~202 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bureau County's 556,205 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 293 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Bureau Countyread your own land →