Lawrence County, in Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lawrence County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lawrence 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 Lawrence County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lawrence County — the short answer
Lawrence County, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 238K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 238K 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 6b is Lawrence County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lawrence County's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Lawrence County
Across a year, Lawrence County accumulates about 3,795 growing degree days above 50°F, about 412 more than the middle Illinois county — ahead of 76 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 Lawrence County
Across Lawrence County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Bluford, Ava, and Carmi are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9–6.6, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
35%
Hydric soils
28%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lawrence County
The USDA soil survey maps 34% of Lawrence County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 65% drains differently: 28% poorly drained, 21% well drained.
Bluford is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Ava (12%) and Carmi (9%).
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 Lawrence County
Each reading below is measured for Lawrence 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 Lawrence County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group C/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Lawrence County runs about pH 5.9–6.6, 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
Season length
MeasuredLawrence County runs about 220 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
MeasuredLawrence County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Lawrence County is in
Lawrence County sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Lawrence County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lawrence County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 220-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 Lawrence 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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Lawrence County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lawrence County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 150 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Lawrence County
USGS estimates 154,655 lb of Glyphosate on Lawrence County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (69,999 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (60,392 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 Lawrence County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lawrence County — 104 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 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 Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
Closest first, across Lawrence County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARATHON OIL COBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Bus BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Casey's General Stores #1756Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Washington SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Ruckers WholesaleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Marathon Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Marathon Oil Co Nthnd ToolhouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Bridgeport Truck/TractorUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Varner's Service, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MARATHON ASHLAND PIPELINE LLCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Lou'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- KBJ's Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lawrence 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 Lawrence County.
Sources Checked
across Lawrence County
Severity Distribution
across Lawrence County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lawrence County, two things run higher than the national average across Lawrence County — CAFO (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (64 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 Lawrence 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 Lawrence County average
Your land is one point inside Lawrence County
Everything above resolves to Lawrence County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 238K 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 Lawrence County Average
Lawrence County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lawrence County
- ●One soil character for all of Lawrence County
- ●Frost dates read at Lawrence County's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lawrence County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lawrence County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lawrence County, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lawrence County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lawrence County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lawrence County average
How we know this about Lawrence 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 Lawrence County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lawrence County
When does frost risk typically end in Lawrence County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lawrence County typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
How long is the growing season in Lawrence County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lawrence County sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 23, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lawrence County?
The federal record around Lawrence County is a meaningful one — 104 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (64), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 Lawrence County's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lawrence 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 Lawrence County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Lawrence County's own scale — its own ~220-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 104 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lawrence County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lawrence County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lawrence CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 104 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lawrence County's boundary and the 238,194 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lawrence County sitting wholly inside the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lawrence 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 Lawrence County — the ~220 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 Lawrence County's 238,194 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 104 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 Lawrence Countyread your own land →