Woodford 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Woodford County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Woodford 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 Woodford County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Woodford County — the short answer
Woodford County, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 338K 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 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 338K 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 Woodford County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodford County's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Woodford County
Across a year, Woodford County accumulates about 3,155 growing degree days above 50°F, about 228 fewer than the middle Illinois county — ahead of 32 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 Woodford County
Across Woodford County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Flanagan, Ipava, and Elpaso are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.0–6.8, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
50%
Hydric soils
29%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Woodford County
The USDA soil survey maps 33% of Woodford County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 63% drains differently: 27% poorly drained, 19% moderately well drained.
Flanagan is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Ipava (10%) and Elpaso (10%).
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 Woodford County
Each reading below is measured for Woodford 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 Woodford 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 Woodford County runs about pH 6.0–6.8, 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
Season length
MeasuredWoodford County runs about 203 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
MeasuredWoodford County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Woodford County is in
Woodford County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Corn Belt Plains (82%) and Interior River Valleys and Hills (19%). 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 Woodford County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Woodford County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 203-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 Woodford County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Woodford County
- monarch butterfly56 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Woodford County
USGS estimates 287,635 lb of Glyphosate on Woodford County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (122,064 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (117,296 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 Woodford County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Woodford County — 259 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Woodford 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 Woodford County
Closest first, across Woodford County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rollies Kountry KitchenUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- THYSSENKRUPP ACCESS MANUFACTURING LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- Prairieland Auto CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- GEM EQUIPMENT & MFGBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Freedom Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CLASSIC AUTOBODYBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Roanoke Rental PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Fischer Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- BRADS AUTOBODYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Casey's General Store #2360Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Village of RoanokeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Woodford County Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodford 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 Woodford County.
Total Sites
259
across Woodford County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Woodford County
Severity Distribution
across Woodford County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woodford County, two things run higher than the national average across Woodford County — CAFO (16 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Woodford 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 Woodford County average
Your land is one point inside Woodford County
Everything above resolves to Woodford County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 338K 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 Woodford County Average
Woodford County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Woodford County
- ●One soil character for all of Woodford County
- ●Frost dates read at Woodford County's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodford County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Woodford County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodford County, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodford County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodford County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodford County average
How we know this about Woodford 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 Woodford County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Woodford County
When does frost risk typically end in Woodford County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodford 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 Woodford County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodford County sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 16, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woodford County?
The federal record around Woodford County is a meaningful one — 259 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (155), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Woodford County's scale — its 5b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodford 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 Woodford County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Woodford County's own scale — its own ~203-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 259 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodford County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woodford County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Woodford CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 259 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Woodford County's boundary and the 337,636 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Woodford County spans, Central Corn Belt Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Woodford County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Woodford 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 Woodford County — the ~203 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 Woodford County's 337,636 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 259 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 Woodford Countyread your own land →