Scott County, in Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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
Scott County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Scott 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 Scott County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Scott County — the short answer
Scott County, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 161K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 161K 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 6a is Scott County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scott County's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Scott County
Across a year, Scott County accumulates about 3,471 growing degree days above 50°F, about 88 more than the middle Illinois county — ahead of 57 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 Scott County
Across Scott County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Rozetta, Fayette, and Hickory are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.8, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
33%
Hydric soils
17%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Scott County
The USDA soil survey maps 49% of Scott County as well drained — but another 50% drains differently: 24% somewhat poorly drained, 17% poorly drained.
Rozetta is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Fayette (9%) and Hickory (7%).
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 Scott County
Each reading below is measured for Scott 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 Scott 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 Scott County runs about pH 6.2–6.8, 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 17% of Scott 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
MeasuredScott County runs about 211 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 Scott County is in
Scott 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 Scott County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Scott County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 211-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 Scott County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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.
What gets applied to farmland in Scott County
USGS estimates 103,747 lb of Glyphosate on Scott County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (50,781 lb) and Atrazine (47,138 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 Scott County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Scott County — 54 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 11 brownfield sites. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
The federal record across Scott 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 Scott County
Closest first, across Scott County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Il Valley Paving CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Winchester Diesel PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Scott Co. Tire & FuelUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ILDOT DIST 6Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 8882Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- WinchesterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Capital FilekeepersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Richter Fertilizer CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SOUTH JACKSONVILLEPFAS · 1.0 mi
- Evans Bruce BBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- No Facility Name ProvidedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Scott County Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scott 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 Scott County.
Sources Checked
across Scott County
Severity Distribution
across Scott County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scott County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 35 sites across Scott County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Scott 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 Scott County average
Your land is one point inside Scott County
Everything above resolves to Scott County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 161K 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 Scott County Average
Scott County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Scott County
- ●One soil character for all of Scott County
- ●Frost dates read at Scott County's scale: Apr 2 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scott County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Scott County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scott County, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scott County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scott County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scott County average
How we know this about Scott 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 Scott County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Scott County
When does frost risk typically end in Scott County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scott County typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Scott County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scott County sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 16, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scott County?
The federal record around Scott County shows 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (35), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Scott County's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scott 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 Scott County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Scott County's own scale — its own ~211-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 54 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scott County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scott County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Scott CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 54 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Scott County's boundary and the 160,505 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Scott County sitting wholly inside the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Scott 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 Scott County — the ~211 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 Scott County's 160,505 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 54 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 Scott Countyread your own land →