Marion County, in Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, 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
Marion County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Marion 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 Marion County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Marion County — the short answer
Marion County, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 366K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 366K 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 Marion County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marion County's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Marion County
Across a year, Marion County accumulates about 3,776 growing degree days above 50°F, about 393 more than the middle Illinois county — ahead of 74 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 Marion County
Across Marion County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Cisne, Hoyleton, and Bluford are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
18%
Hydric soils
28%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Marion County
The USDA soil survey maps 53% of Marion County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 46% drains differently: 27% poorly drained, 11% well drained.
Cisne is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Hoyleton (15%) and Bluford (14%).
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 Marion County
Each reading below is measured for Marion 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 Marion 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 Marion County runs about pH 5.9–6.7, 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
Season length
MeasuredMarion County runs about 224 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
MeasuredMarion 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 Marion County is in
Marion 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 Marion County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Marion County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 224-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 Marion 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 Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (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. 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 Marion County
- Japanese beetle83 documented records
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Marion County
USGS estimates 162,768 lb of Glyphosate on Marion County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (62,149 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (61,597 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 Marion County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Marion County — 256 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 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 Marion 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 Marion County
Closest first, across Marion County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SALEMPFAS · 0.8 mi
- 3N 3E-31.3gNitrate · 1.1 mi
- FABICK TRACTOR COBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Jiffy PackagingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Goose Creek Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Fabick Tractor CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Joe Hotze Ford IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Yellow Freight System IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Maintenance YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Salem Township HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Fas Mart #555Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SEALED AIR CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marion 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 Marion County.
Sources Checked
across Marion County
Severity Distribution
across Marion County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marion County, two things run higher than the national average across Marion County — Superfund (7 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Marion 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 Marion County average
Your land is one point inside Marion County
Everything above resolves to Marion County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 366K 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 Marion County Average
Marion County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Marion County
- ●One soil character for all of Marion County
- ●Frost dates read at Marion County's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marion County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Marion County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marion County, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marion County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marion County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marion County average
How we know this about Marion 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 Marion County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Marion County
When does frost risk typically end in Marion County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marion County typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
How long is the growing season in Marion County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marion County sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 23, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marion County?
The federal record around Marion County is a meaningful one — 256 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (148), the nearest PFAS 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 Marion County's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marion 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 Marion County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Marion County's own scale — its own ~224-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 256 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marion County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marion County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Marion CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 256 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Marion County's boundary and the 366,424 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Marion County sitting wholly inside the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Marion County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Marion 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 Marion County — the ~224 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 Marion County's 366,424 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 256 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 Marion Countyread your own land →