Saline County, in Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Saline County lies within the Shawnee Hills / Southern Illinois (Little Egypt) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Saline County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Saline 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 Saline County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Saline County — the short answer
Saline County, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 243K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 243K 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 7a is Saline County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Saline County's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Saline County
Across a year, Saline County accumulates about 3,960 growing degree days above 50°F, about 577 more than the middle Illinois county — ahead of 89 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 Saline County
Across Saline County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Ava, Hosmer, and Belknap are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9–6.6, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
17%
Hydric soils
20%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Saline County
The USDA soil survey maps 30% of Saline County as moderately well drained — but another 68% drains differently: 28% somewhat poorly drained, 20% well drained.
Ava is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Hosmer (10%) and Belknap (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 Saline County
Each reading below is measured for Saline 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 Saline County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Saline 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 20% of Saline 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
MeasuredSaline County runs about 222 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 Saline County is in
Saline County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Interior River Valleys and Hills (85%) and Interior Plateau (15%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Saline County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Saline County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 222-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 Saline County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Saline County
USGS estimates 65,273 lb of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s on Saline County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor-s (47,924 lb) and Glyphosate (45,391 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 Saline County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Saline County — 144 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Saline County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Saline County
Closest first, across Saline County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 9368Brownfields · 2100 ft
- Abmi 286-002 Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CROWN PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- Casey's General Stores, Inc. #3421Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Madonna IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Egyptian BeverageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Podoriscki Petroleum IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Harrisburg True ValueUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Moore Texaco Ser StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PUFFIN BOATS, LTD.Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- Casey's General Store #2286Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Hucks #177Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Saline 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 Saline County.
Total Sites
144
across Saline County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Saline County
Severity Distribution
across Saline County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Saline County, two things run higher than the national average across Saline County — CAFO (6 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Saline 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 Saline County average
Your land is one point inside Saline County
Everything above resolves to Saline County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 243K 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 Saline County Average
Saline County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Saline County
- ●One soil character for all of Saline County
- ●Frost dates read at Saline County's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Saline County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Saline County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Saline County, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Saline County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Saline County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Saline County average
How we know this about Saline 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 Saline County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Saline County
When does frost risk typically end in Saline County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Saline County typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
How long is the growing season in Saline County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Saline County sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 22, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Saline County?
The federal record around Saline County shows 144 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Saline County's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Saline 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 Saline County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Saline County's own scale — its own ~222-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 144 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Saline County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Saline County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Saline CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 144 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Saline County's boundary and the 243,198 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Saline County spans, Interior River Valleys and Hills the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Saline 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 Saline County — the ~222 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 Saline County's 243,198 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 144 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 Saline Countyread your own land →